GIFT   OF 
cv 

JL 


fntaatbiral 


EDITED    BY 

WILLIAM  T.  HARRIS,  A.  M.,  LL.  D. 


VOLUME  XXIV. 


INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATION  SERIES. 

12 mo,  cloth,  uniform  binding. 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATION  SERIES  was  projected  for  the  pur- 
pose of  bringing  together  in  orderly  arrangement  the  best  writings,  new  and 
old,  upon  educational  subjects,  and  presenting  a  complete  course  of  reading  and 
training  for  teachers  generally.  It  is  edited  by  WILLIAM  T.  HARRIS,  LL.  D., 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  who  has  contributed  for  the  different 
volumes  in  the  way  of  introduction,  analysis,  and  commentary.  The  volumes  are 
tastefully  and  substantially  bound  in  uniform  style. 

VOLUMES  NOW  BEADY. 

1.  The  Philosophy  of  Education.    By  JOHANN  K.  F.  ROSENKRANZ,  Doc- 

tor of  Theology  and  Professor  of  Philosophy,  University  of  KOnigsberg. 
Translated  by  ANNA  C.  BRACKETT.  Second  edition,  revised,  with  Com- 
mentary and  complete  Analysis.  $1.50. 

2.  A  History  of  Education.     By  F.  V.  N.  PAINTER,  A.M.,  Professor  of 

Modern  Languages  and  Literature,  Roanoke  College,  Va.    $1.50. 
3    The  Kise  and  Early  Constitution  of  Universities.     WITH  A  SUR- 
VEY OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.    By  S.  S.  LAURIE,  LL.  D.,  Professor  of 
the  Institutes  and  History  of  Education,  University  of  Edinburgh.    $1.50. 

4.  The  Ventilation  and  Warming  of  School  Buildings.    By  GILBERT 

B.  MORRISON,  Teacher  of  Physics  and  Chemistry,  Kansas  City  High  School. 
$1.00. 

5.  The  Education  of  Man.    By  FRIEDRICH  FROEBEL.     Translated  and  an- 

notated by  W.  N.  HAILMANN,  A.M.,  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools, 
La  Porte,  Ind.  $1.50. 

6.  Elementary  Psychology  and    Education.     By   JOSEPH   BALDWIN, 

A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  author  of  "  The  Art  of  School  Management.'1    $1.50. 

7.  The  Senses  and  the  Will.     (Part  I  of  UTHE  MIND  OF  THE  CHILD.") 

By  W.  PREYER,  Professor  of  Physiology  in  Jena.  Translated  by  H.  W. 
BROWN,  Teacher  in  the  State  Normal  School  at  Worcester,  Mass.  $1.50. 

8.  Memory:  What  it  is  and  How  to  Improve  it.      By  DAVID  KAY, 

F.  R.  G.  S.,  author  of  "  Education  and  Educators,"  etc.     $1.50. 

9.  The  Development  of  the  Intellect.    (Part  II  of  **  THE  MIND  OF  THE 

CHILD.")  By  W.  PREYER,  Professor  of  Physiology  in  Jena.  Translated  by 
H.  W.  BROWN.  $1.50. 

10.  How  to  Study  Geography.      A  Practical  Exposition  of  Methods  and 

Devices  in  Teaching  Geography  which  apply  the  Principles  and  Plans  of 
Ritter  and  Guyot.  By  FRANCIS  W.  PARKER,  Principal  of  the  Cook  County 
(Illinois)  Normal  School.  $1.50. 

11.  Education  in  the  United  States :  Its  History  from  the  Earliest 

Settlements.  By  RICHARD  G.  BOONE,  A.M.,  Professor  of  Pedagogy, 
Indiana  University.  $1.50. 

12.  European  Schools ;  OR,  WHAT  I  SAW  IN  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY, 

FRANCE,  AUSTRIA,  AND  SWITZERLAND.  By  L.  R.  KLEMM,  Ph.  D.,  Principal 
of  the  Cincinnati  Technical  School.  FullyMllustrated.  $2.00. 

13.  Practical  Hints  for  the  Teachers  of  Public  Schools.    By  GEORGE 

HOWLAND,  Superintendent  of  the  Chicago  Public  Schools.    $1.00. 

14.  Pestalozzi :  His  Ijife  and  Work.    By  ROGER  DE  GUIMPS.     Authorized 

Translation  from  the  second  French  edition,  by  J.  RUSSELL,  B.  A.  With  an 
Introduction  by  Rev.  R.  H.  QUICK,  M.  A.  $1.50. 

15.  School  Supervision.    By  J.  L.  PICKARD,  LL.  D.    $1.00. 

16.  Higher  Education  of  Women  in  Europe.   By  HELENE  LANGS,  Berlin 

Translatedand  accompanied  by  comparative  statistics  by  L.  R.  KLEMM.  $1.00. 

17.  Essays  on  Educational  Reformers.       By  ROBERT  HERBERT  QUICK, 

M.  A.,  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  Only  authorized  edition  of  the  work  as 
rewritten  in  1890.  $1.50. 

18.  A  Text-Book  in  Psychology.  By  JOHANN  FRIEDRICH  UEBBART.   Trans- 

lated by  MARGARET  K.  SMITH.    $1.00. 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATION  SERIES.- (Continued.) 


19.  Psychology  Applies 
A.M.,LL.D.     $1.50. 


led  to  the  Art  of  Teaching.    By  JOSEPH  BALDWIN, 


20.  Rousseau's  Emile ;   OK,  TREATISE  ON  EDUCATION.    Translated  and  an- 

notated by  W.  H.  PAYNE,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D.    $1.50. 

21.  The  Moral  Instruction  of  Children.    By  FELIX  ADLER.    $1.50. 

22.  English  Education  in  the  Elementary  and  Secondary  SchoolSo 

By  ISAAC  SHARPLESS,  LL.  D.,  President  of  Haverford  College.    $1.00. 

23.  Education  from  a  National  Stand  point.  By  ALFRED  FOUILLEE.  $1.50. 

24.  Mental  Development    of  the   Child.      By  W.  PREYER,  Professor  of 

Physiology  in  Jena.     Translated  by  H.  W.  BROWN.    $1.00. 

25.  How  to  Study  and  Teach  History.    By  B.  A.  HINSDALE,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D., 

University  of  Michigan.     $1.50. 

26.  Symbolic  Education.    A  COMMENTARY  ON  FROEBEL'S  "  MOTHER-PLAY." 

By  SUSAN  E.  BLOW.    $1.50. 

27.  Systematic  Science  Teaching.      By  EDWARD  GARDNIEK  HOWE.    $1.50. 

28.  The  Education  of  the  Greek  People.     By  THOMAS  DAVIDSON.    $1.50. 

29.  The  Evolution  of  the  Massachusetts  Public-School  System.    By 

G.  H.  MARTIN,  A.  M.    $1.50. 
80.  Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergarten.  By  FRIEDRICH  FROEBEL.  12mo.  $1.50. 

31.  The  Mottoes  and  Commentaries  of  Freidrich  FroebeFs  Mother- 

Play.    By  SUSAN  E.  BLOW  and  HENRIETTA  R.  ELIOT.    $1.50. 

32.  The  Songs  and   Music   of  Froebel's   Mother-Play.    By  SUSAN  E. 

BLOW.    $1.50. 

33.  The  Psychology  of  Number,  and  its  Application  to  Methods  of 

Teaching  Arithmetic.  By  JAMES  A.  MCLELLAN,  A.M.,  and  JOHN 
DEWEY,  Ph.  D.  $1.50. 

34.  Teaching  the  Language- Arts.      SPEECH,  READING,  COMPOSITION.    By 

B.  A.  HINSDALE,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D.    $1.00. 

35.  The  Intellectual  and  Moral  Development  of  the  Child.    PART  I. 

Containing  Chapters  on  PERCEPTION,  EMOTION,  MEMORY,  IMAGINATION, 
and  CONSCIOUSNESS.  By  GABRIEL  COMPAYRE.  Translated  from  the 
French  by  MARY  E.  WILSON.  $1.50. 

36.  Herbart's  A  B  C  of  Sense-Perception,  and  Introductory  Works. 

By  WILLIAM  J.  ECKOFF,  Ph.  D.,  Pd.  D.    $1.50. 

37.  Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education.    By  WILLIAM   T.   HARRIS, 

A.M,  LL.D.     $1.50. 

38.  The  School  System  of  Ontario.    By  the  Hon.  GEORGE  W.  Ross,  LL.  D., 

Minister  of  Education  for  the  Province  of  Ontario.    $1.00. 

39.  Principles  and  Practice  of  Teaching.    By  JAMES  JOHONNOT.    $1.50. 

40.  School  Management  and  School  Methods.     By  JOSEPH  BALDWIN. 

$1.50. 

41.  Froebel's    Educational    Laws   for    all    Teachers.     By   JAMES   L. 

HUGHES,  Inspector  of  Schools,  Toronto.     $1.50. 

42.  Bibliography  of  Education.    By  WILL  S.  MONEOE,  A.  B.    $2.00. 

43.  The  Study  of  the  Child.    By  A.  R.  TAYLOR,  Ph.  D.    $1.50. 

44.  Education  by  Development.    By  FRIEDRICH  FROEBEL.    Translated  by 

JOSEPHINE  JARVIS.    $1.50. 

45.  Letters  to  a  Mother.    By  SUSAN  E.  BLOW.    $1.50. 

46.  Montaigne's  The  Education  of  Children.     Translated  by  L.  E.  REC- 

TOR, Ph.  D.    $1.00. 

47.  The  Secondary   School   System   of    Germany.     By  FREDERICK  E. 

BOLTON.    $1.50. 

OTHER  VOLUMES  IN  PREPARATION. 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATION  SERIES 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT 
IN  THE  CHILD 


BY 

W.   PREYER 

PEOFESSOB   OF    PHYSIOLOGY    IN    JENA 

AUTHOR    OF 

THE   MIND    OF   THE    CHILD    (PART   I.    THE^  SENSES   AND    THE   WILL; 
PART   II.    THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF' THE    INTELLECT) 


TRANSLATED   FROM   THE   GERMAN 

BY  H.  W.   BROWN 

TEACHER   IN   THE    STATE   NORMAL    SCHOOL   AT   WORCESTER,   MASS. 


NEW    YORK 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 
1899 


4- - 


COPYRIGHT,  1893, 
BY  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


ELECTROTYPED  AND  PRINTED 
AT  THE  APPLETON  PRESS,  U.  S.  A. 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 


THOSE  who  have  studied  the  careful  observations 
on  the  growth  of  the  mind  in  childhood  recorded  in 
the  two  volumes  of  this  series  entitled  respectively 
The  Senses  and  the  Will  and  The  Development  of 
the  Intellect  will  be  interested  in  receiving  from  the 
author,  Dr.  Preyer,  further  reports  of  the  results  and 
conclusions  which  he  has  reached  after  time  has  per- 
mitted wider  surveys  of  the  field,  new  verifications, 
and  more  deliberate  reflection  upon  the  data  given. 

The  special  object  of  this  book,  as  announced  by 
Dr.  Preyer  in  his  preface,  is  to  initiate  mothers  into 
this  complicated  science  of  psych ogenesis.  Accord- 
ingly he  has  taken  unusual  pains  to  present  the  more 
important  points  upon  which  the  development  of  the 
child's  mind  depends  in  a  form  easy  of  assimilation. 
He  desires  to  evoke  a  widespread  interest  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  infant  mind,  and  lead  to  a  multitude 

258267 


vi  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

of  special  investigations  into  the  phenomena  of  the 
first  five  years  of  the  child's  life. 

This  movement,  known  as  "  child  study,"  has  re- 
ceived great  impulse  in  this  country  within  a  few 
years,  especially  through  the  labors  of  Dr.  Stanley 
Hall,  who  may  be  called  the  pioneer  and  enthusiastic 
promoter  of  the  good  work.  Prof.  M.  W.  Hum- 
phreys, of  Tennessee,  and  Prof.  Edward  S.  Holden, 
of  California,  published  their  investigations  into  the 
vocabularies  of  children  soon  after  Darwin  published 
his  biographical  sketch  of  his  infant  son  and  Taine 
his  essay  "  Sur  PAquisition  du  Langage."  Mr.  E.  H. 
Eussell,  Principal  of  the  State  Normal  School  of 
Worcester,  Mass.,  was  one  of  the  first  to  commence 
in  his  school  a  systematic  collection  of  data  regard- 
ing the  development  of  children.  Recently,  Prof. 
Earl  Barnes,  in  the  Leland  Stanford,  Junior,  Uni- 
versity, has  made  large  additions  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  development  of  the  conceptions .  of  children  in 
regard  to  art,  religion,  and  some  other  fields.  Every 
day  one  comes  to  hear  of  some  new  laborer  in  this 
province  of  pedagogy. 

The  results  recorded  in  this  volume  are  chiefly  of 
three  kinds : 

1.  The  order  of  development  of  the  senses — taste, 
smell,  touch,  hearing,  sight ;  the  feelings  of  tempera- 
ture, the  emotions  of  fear,  astonishment,  and  anger ; 
the  intellect  and  will,  language  and  self-consciousness. 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE.  vii 

2.  The  characteristic  marks  by  which  the  several 
phases  of  these  activities  are  to  be  discriminated  and 
known.  For  example,  the  author  makes  the  intellect 
begin  to  manifest  itself  by  placing  its  impressions  in 
space  and  time — the  notions  of  space  and  time  are 
said  to  be  added  to  sensation,  thus  converting  it  into 
perception.  When  the  cause  of  the  perception  is  ap- 
prehended the  perception  becomes  an  idea.  Space, 
time,  and  causality  are  therefore  three  criteria  of  the 
highest  order  in  our  investigation  of  the  development 
of  the  infant  mind  in  its  earliest  stages.  It  is  well  to 
understand  with  the  greatest  fullness  what  the  develop- 
ment of  the  idea  of  causality  means  to  the  mind.  It 
is  nothing  less  than  the  process  of  emancipation  of 
the  mind  from  dependence  on  immediate  sense-per- 
ception. There  is  first  a  perception  of  an  object 
present — here  and  now — before  the  senses.  This  per- 
ception is  repeated  of  the  same  object  and  of  other 
objects  of  the  same  class.  By  the  introduction  of  the 
idea  of  cause  the  mind  comes  to  understand  the  mode 
of  production  of  these  individual  objects.  It  under- 
stands, for  instance,  that  leaves  grow  on  trees  as  their 
producing  causes ;  that  fire  will  bake  cakes ;  that  hu- 
man beings  and  many  animals  produce  various  sounds 
with  their  voices.  On  seeing  an  object,  a  leaf,  or  a 
cake,  it  instantly  goes  back  to  the  source  and  through 
a  common  cause  associates  the  present  object  with 
others  of  its  kind.  The  act  of  recognition  of  its  class, 


viii  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

and  a  consequent  anticipation  of  observation  by  bring- 
ing to  its  aid  its  stored-up  experience  regarding  the 
modes  of  action  which  the  cause  of  the  present  object 
has  shown  itself  to  possess — this  is  a  step  in  emancipa- 
tion from  sense-perception.  The  mind  acts  less  in 
sense-perception  and  more  in  apperception.  It  spends 
less  time  in  touching,  tasting,  smelling,  hearing,  see- 
ing, and  more  in  recognizing  and  identifying  what  is 
before  it  and  thereby  adjusting  it  to  the  aggregate  of 
experience  already  acquired.  This  apperceiving  or 
adjusting  of  the  new  perception  to  the  perceptions 
already  stored  up  involves,  as  we  see,  first  memory,  and 
next  thought.  Memory  brings  back  to  consciousness 
old  percepts  and  old  ideas  and  thus  renders  possible 
the  act  of  comparison  of  the  present  object  perceived 
with  the  absent  objects  remembered.  Thinking  or 
thought  deals  with  the  causal  principle,  and  under- 
stands objects  by  relating  them  to  the  causal  processes 
by  which  they  have  originated  and  are  accustomed  to 
originate.  The  child  does  much  staring  and  listening 
and  touching  compared  with  the  man.  The  man 
needs  only  a  first  glance  or  a  first  note,  and  he  identi- 
fies and  recognizes  the  sight  or  sound  and  at  once 
classifies  and  places  the  new  object  correctly  in  its 
process  and  understands  it.  He  does  not  need  to  con- 
tinue the  act  of  perception  so  long  as  the  child,  for 
thought,  employing  the  causal  idea,  has  emancipated 
him  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  from  mere  perception. 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE.  ix 

The  causal  genesis  of  objects  is  of  a  higher  order 
of  being  than  the  objects  perceived  by  the  senses. 
The  former  contains  the  latter  potentially.  A  cause 
is  worth  a  whole  series  of  effects.  The  hen  in  the 
nursery  tale  that  laid  the  golden  eggs  was  a  living 
causal  process,  while  the  eggs  were  mere  dead  results 
or  effects. 

Prof.  Preyer  will  not  be  thought  to  lay  too  much 
stress  on  the  perception  of  causality  as  the  crite- 
rion of  intellect,  in  contrast  to  sense-perception.  In 
fact,  the  change  from  sense-impression  to  sense-percep- 
tion by  the  time  and  space  notions  may  be  said  to  take 
place  through  an  unconscious  application  of  causality 
— a  causal  feeling,  so  to  speak.  For  the  child  per- 
ceives time  and  space,  or  objectifies  his  impressions, 
by  referring  them  to  another  source  than  his  own  will 
— that  is  to  say,  than  his  own  personal  causality. 

From  the  idea  of  cause,  which  is  the  all-important 
idea  in  explaining  the  genesis  of  the  intellect  and  the 
unity  of  experience,  the  transition  is  easy  to  the  idea 
of  will;  for  the  will  is  a  personal  causality.  Prof. 
Preyer  makes  the  act  of  imitation  to  be  the  first  sure 
sign  of  the  development  of  the  will.  Imitation  shows 
the  consciousness  of  power  to  originate  motions.  It 
shows,  moreover,  the  act  of  recognition  of  the  origin 
of  the  motion  which  it  imitates  in  another  cause  than 
itself.  The  child  recognizes  in  some  motion  the  ac- 
tion of  another  causality  than  itself,  and  it  repeats 


x  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

within  itself  this  act  which  it  has  observed,  thus  re- 
producing it  or  imitating  it. 

The  delight  which  the  mother  feels  when  her 
child  first  learns  to  imitate  is  explained — it  is  the 
first  recognition  of  the  existence  of  veritable  will 
power,  of  true  conscious  self-determination.  Parents 
are  apt  to  speak  of  cases  of  stubborn  resistance  or  per- 
sistence on  the  part  of  infants  as  cases  of  willfulness, 
but  stubbornness  is  not  a  reliable  sign  of  will ;  it  may 
be,  as  in  the  case  of  lower  animals,  a  mere  instinctive 
action.  Imitation,  however,  is  a  sufficient  indication 
of  the  exercise  of  the  veritable  will.  And  this,  of 
course,  must  be  true  of  such  animals  as  monkeys,  par- 
rots, dogs,  and  other  animals  that  can  be  taught  imi- 
tation— they  show  the  rudiments  of  will. 

Arrested  development  at  the  standpoint  of  imita- 
tion, we  all  know,  produces  the  much  despised  lower 
order  of  human  intellects — the  men  and  women  of 
mere  use  and  wont — blind  followers  of  custom. 

3.  Prof.  Preyer  has  demonstrated  with  sufficient 
clearness  the  existence  of  intellect  without  language. 
The  ideas  of  space,  time,  and  cause  are  prior  to  the 
ideas  that  usher  in  the  stage  of  language.  Of  course, 
the  influence  of  language  reacting  upon  the  intellect 
is  very  great,  as  Prof.  Preyer  himself  expressly  shows. 
Language  may  be  said  to  arise  from  the  side  of  the 
will,  inasmuch  as  it  is  an  evolution  from  the  imitative 
activity  of  the  soul.  It  contains  both  recognition  and 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE.  xi 

reproduction,  and  thus  not  only  intellect  nor  mere 
will,  but  both  will  and  intellect  in  joint  activity. 

According  to  one  view,  the  soul  is  a  product  of  the 
organism ;  according  to  another  view,  the  organism  is 
the  product  of  the  soul.  Both  views  have  scientific 
value,  of  course,  but,  taking  the  latter  view  in  the  in^ 
terest  of  religion  and  humanity,  we  explain  every  step 
of  building  the  body,  from  the  embryonic  stage  up  to 
the  mature  man,  to  be  the  action  of  a  self-determined 
being  taking  possession  of  matter  and  stamping  upon  it 
its  own  image  and  giving  it  the  form  of  organic  cells. 
It  uses  its  organism  to  attack  its  environment  and  gain 
new  means  of  expression  and  new  means  of  conquest. 

Even  the  plant  exhibits  to  us  a  self  reacting  on 
its  environment  and  assimilating  it  to  vegetable  cells. 
The  infant  animal  shows  us  reaction  upon  its  environ- 
ment of  two  kinds :  one,  that  of  using  it  for  food,  and 
a  second,  that  of  sensation,  in  which  the  inner  causal- 
ity reacts  against  the  environment  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  produce  perception  or  representation.  It  is,  by 
analogy,  a  kind  of  reproduction  of  the  environment 
within  itself  for  its  own  purposes.  This  is  a  new  and 
higher  order  of  reaction,  breaking  out,  as  it  were, 
against  the  lower  order  of  reaction,  that  of  mere 
digestion  or  assimilation  ;  for  it  does  not  condescend 
to  act  on  external  matter,  but  tries  to  reproduce  its 
environment  through  its  own  energy.  The  infant 
child  shows  us  both  these  phases  of  reaction,  and  also 


xii  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

a  higher  reaction  against  the  two  lower  in  the  form  of 
thought.  For  thought  is  opposed  to  mere  animal 
reaction,  to  mere  imitation,  representation,  or  repro- 
duction of  the  environment,  as  well  as  to  mere  plant 
reaction,  which  is  a  struggle  to  convert  that  environ- 
ment into  cellular  tissue.  It  evidently  aspires  to  free 
itself  altogether  from  its  thraldom  to  any  environ- 
ment except  one  of  its  own  make.  It  does  this  by. 
appealing  to  the  causality  that  has  made  its  environ- 
ment, and  dealing  with  that  causality  first-hand,  in- 
stead of  with  its  dead  results,  the  objects  of  sense- 
perception.  Hence,  the  really  human  interest  in  the 
development  of  mind  is  this  struggle  toward  what 
Immanuel  Kant  called  ".transcendental  freedom." 

The  ego  is  itself  a  transcendental  freedom,  accord- 
ing to  this  second  or  humanitarian  view  of  the  soul ; 
and  most  interesting  of  all  phenomena  are  the  strug- 
gles of  the  infant  child  to  find  in  himself,  and  become 
conscious  of,  this  transcendental  freedom.  The  most 
easily  observed  of  these  is  the  adoption  of  moral  ideas 
whereby  the  soul  renounces  the  immediate  gratifica- 
tion of  the  body  for  the  preservation  of  the  integrity 
of  its  inner  self-determination — makes  naught  of  its 
material  environment  for  the  sake  of  its  supersensible 
ideals. 

But  the  rise  from  the  standpoints  of  sense-percep- 
tion and  loose  habits  of  reflection  to  scientific  habits 
of  mind  is  likewise  a  manifestation  of  the  same  tran- 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

scendental  freedom.  It  is  the  resort  to  a  supreme  ra- 
tional norm  in  preference  to  holding  by  the  two  lower 
intellectual  activities  dominated  by  the  accident  of  en- 
vironment, or,  in  other  words,  by  the  temporal  interests 
prevailing.  If  I  allow  myself  to  be  controlled  in  the 
objects  of  my  perception  by  the  time  and  place  that  I 
happen  to  be  situated  in,  or  in  my  objects  of  reflec- 
tion by  my  equally  accidental  environment,  I  do  not 
possess  the  scientific  habit  of  mind  ;  for  that  chooses 
its  object,  and  proceeds  systematically  to  exhaust  it. 

The  infant  child  at  first  is  not  able  to  use  his  body, 
neither  his  muscles  nor  even  his  brain  cells.  His  de- 
velopment takes  two  lines — to  master  the  afferent  and 
the  efferent  nerves.  Hidden  behind  his  mask  (of  the 
body)  at  first,  he  gradually  emerges  to  view.  He  gets 
control  of  his  apparatus  and  develops  new  apparatus. 
By  his  energy  and  perseverance  he  gets  the  use  of  his 
muscles  and  brain  cells,  and  develops  new  fibers  be- 
tween those  cells  so  that  he  can  associate  all  manner 
of  data  of  experience. 

Unless  he  acts  intellectually  his  brain  cells  and 
connecting  fibers  will  not  develop.  The  ganglionic 
cells  are  lacking  or  very  scanty  at  first,  we  are  told. 
These  develop  for  the  uses  of  the  soul,  if  it  energizes 
'and  uses  them. 

Our  human  interest  in  the  child  is  in  seeing  his 
freedom  develop.  The  growth  of  the  infant  is  first 
into  freedom  in  the  body,  and  next  into  freedom  from 


xiv  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

the  body.  By  science,  philosophy,  ethics,  religion, 
politics,  art,  and  literature  man  is  emancipated  from 
the  narrow  limits  of  his  bodily  environment  and  made 
a  denizen  of  the  world  of  spirit — made  a  member  of 
the  "  invisible  church." 

W.  T.  HARRIS. 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  September  5,  1893. 


AUTHOK'S  PKEFACE. 


MOKE  than  ten  years  ago  I  published  a  treatise  on 
the  mental  development  of  the  human  being  in  the 
first  years  of  life,  with  the  title  Psychogenesis.  The 
problems  touched  upon  in  that  treatise  were  afterward 
handled  in  detail  in  my  book  The  Mind  of  the  Child 
(Die  Seele  des  Kindes),  the  first  edition  of  which  ap- 
peared toward  the  end  of  the  year  1881,  and  the 
third  edition,  revised  and  enlarged,  in  March,  1890 ; 
and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  this  new  depart- 
ment of  physiological  pyschology  is  now  firmly  estab- 
lished. Investigators  in  the  most  diverse  special  prov- 
inces of  medicine,  language,  pedagogy,  are  turning 
more  and  more  to  the  observation  of  their  own  chil- 
dren during  just  those  years  in  which  speech  is  ac- 
quired, and  we  can  foresee  that  at  no  distant  date  will 
appear  special  text-books  upon  the  physiology  and 
pyschology  of  the  child  from  the  first  year  to  the  fifth 

year  of  life.     But  before  that  takes  place  a  great  deal 
2 


xvi  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

more  work  must  be  done ;  and  in  particular,  a  more 
widespread  interest  in  this  subject  must  be  evoked, 
and  where  interest  already  exists  it  must  be  aug- 
mented. 

For,  after  all,  the  observation  of  mental  develop- 
ment in  the  earliest  years  naturally  falls  to  the  mother 
more  than  to  any  other  person.  But  in  order  to  initi- 
ate mothers  into  so  complicated  a  science  as  that  of 
pyschogenesis,  the  results  already  attained  in  it  must 
be  presented  to  them  in  a  form  as  easy  of  assimilation 
as  possible.  Other  persons  also — teachers,  both  male 
and  female,  fathers,  older  brothers  and  sisters — are  to 
be  induced  to  consider  the  importance  of  the  facts  in 
this  field,  which  has  indeed  been  lying  open  for  hun- 
dreds of  years,  but  has  been  little  trodden,  and  is 
therefore  a  new  field. 

For  these  reasons  I  shall  endeavor,  in  response  to 
oft-repeated  inquiries  and  requests,  to  put  together 
some  of  the  more  important  points  upon  which  the 
development  of  the  child's  mind  depends.  But  here 
I  wish  to  say  expressly  that  it  is  impossible  to  take 
note  of  everything  that  from  a  scientific  or  practical 
point  of  view  would  be  prominent — for  example,  the 
growth  of  the  religious  sentiment,  the  development  of 
conscience,  the  advent  of  the  passions — because  there 
is  as  yet  too  great  a  lack  of  trustworthy  and  coherent 
observations.  What  I  have  to  say  has  been  selected 
from  the  pretty  extensive  and  securely  grounded  ma- 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.          Xvii 

terial  in  our  possession,  with  special  reference  to  prac- 
tical use  and  application. 

Of  course  it  is  not  for  every  one  to  confirm  by  his 
own  observation  all  my  statements  of  fact ;  for  it  is  no 
easy  thing  in  the  case  of  an  individual  child  who  is  in 
active  movement,  changing  every  instant  the  direction 
of  his  attention,  altering  his  expression,  and  babbling 
unintelligible  sounds,  to  ascertain  what  is  in  accord- 
ance with  law.  He  only  can  reach  the  goal  who,  with 
the  greatest  patience  and  after  preliminary  studies  in 
physiology  and  psychology,  occupies  himself  persist- 
ently and  impartially  with  several  children.  Knowl- 
edge of  mankind  is  not  gained  by  the  mere  theorizer, 
but  only  by  him  who  with  ripe  judgment  and  per- 
sonal experience  has  intercourse  with  men.  Although 
the  little  child  shows  himself  to  the  observer  always 
without  the  least  dissimulation — unveiled  in  both  the 
literal  and  the  figurative  sense  of  the  word — still  there 
is  great  danger,  with  the  anthropomorphic  tendency 
of  most  people  in  their  way  of  looking  at  things,  that 
more  will  be  attributed  to  the  child  than  actually  be- 
longs to  him.  Moreover,  knowledge  of  mankind  is 
not  of  much  help  here  at  first,  because  everything 
which  at  a  later  period  comes  forth,  obscurely  or 
openly,  is  now  present  only  in  the  germ.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  observation  of  untrained  animals,  especially 
young  ones,  and  the  comparison  of  the  observations 
made  upon  them  with  those  made  upon  little  children, 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

have  often  been  found  by  me  very  helpful  toward  an 
understanding  of  children ;  and  I  hope  from  the  com- 
pletion of  a  comparative  psychology,  together  with  the 
inauguration  of  psychogenetic  observations,  more  re- 
sults than  from  the  prosecution  of  earlier  psychologies 
of  a  more  speculative  sort. 

As  to  the  foundation  of  my  statements  in  detail, 
the  reader  is  referred  to  the  work  mentioned  at  the 
beginning,  The  Mind  of  the  Child. 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. — The  scientific  observation  of  children 
by  their  parents  has  become  more  common  in  recent  years  (p. 
ix).  Much  work  remains  to  be  done,  and  the  persons  who  have 
the  best  opportunity  to  do  it  are  the  mothers.  The  object  of 
this  book  is  to  initiate  mothers  into  the  science  of  child  obser- 
vation (p.  x).  The  work  requires  great  patience  and  skill 
(p.  xi). 

CHAPTER  I. — The  Senses  of  the  Newborn  Child.  The  senses 
are  absolutely  necessary  to  the  child  for  any  knowledge  of  the 
world  into  which  he  is  born.  If  one  sense  only  is  lacking, 
knowledge  of  one  kind  must  be  forever  lacking  (p.  1).  The 
senses,  however,  do  not  furnish  knowledge  at  once.  The  child 
has  to  learn  to  use  them.  Taste  first  learned.  A  few  days  after 
birth,  sweet  is  preferred  to  bitter  or  sour  (p.  2).  This  early  de- 
velopment of  taste  is  of  advantage  to  the  child.  Smell  is  mani- 
fested in  the  first  few  days  by  discrimination  between  agree- 
able and  disagreeable  odors  (p.  3).  The  cutaneous  sense,  which 
includes  the  sense  of  temperature  along  with  that  of  touch,  is 
imperfect  for  some  days  (p.  4).  Hearing  does  not  exist  at  birth. 
The  newborn  child  is  deaf,  and  for  many  days  he  hears  imper- 
fectly. This  lack  of  hearing  is  advantageous  (pp.  5,  6).  Sight 
is  not  possessed  at  first.  The  eye  is  sensitive  to  light,  but 
there  is  no  perception  of  color  or  form  (p.  7).  Nature  of  the 
field  of  vision  at  first  (p.  8).  Physiological  nature  of  a  sensa- 
tion of  light  (p.  9).  The  brain  of  the  infant  differs  in  form 
from  that  of  the  adult.  Ganglionic  cells  are  lacking  or  very 


xx           ANALYTICAL  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

scanty.  These  cells  have  a  very  important  function  in  mental 
development  (p.  10).  The  ability  to  distinguish  between  sensa- 
tions depends  on  the  cerebral  cortex.  Discrimination  of  odors 
and  tastes  requires  practice  (p.  11).  The  same  is  true  of  tem- 
peratures, tones,  and  colors.  There  is  sad  neglect  of  training  in 
regard  to  tones  and  colors.  Tests  in  English  schools  showed 
great  lack  of  color  sense,  yet  the  children  were  not  color-blind ; 
they  needed  practice  (p.  12).  The  author's  child  showed  the 
necessity  of  long  practice  for  discrimination  of  colors.  All 
children  are  uncertain  about  colors  up  to  the  end  of  the  second 
year.  It  is  much  the  same  as  to  tones  (p.  13).  To  know 
whether  a  child  has  an  "  ear  for  music,"  we  must  give  him 
early  opportunity  to  distinguish  tones;  otherwise  he  may  be 
declared  to  be  unmusical  when  he  is  not  so.  No  child  should 
be  excluded  from  instruction  in  singing  and  music  except  after 
protracted  trial  (p.  14).  There  has  been  too  much  neglect  of  the 
senses  of  the  infant  (p.  15). 

CHAPTER  II.— Feelings,  Emotions,  and  Temperaments  in  In- 
fancy. The  child  has  bodily  feelings  of  a  general  character, 
not  at  first  defined  or  separated  from  one  another  (pp.  16,  17). 
Hunger  and  thirst  prominent.  After  weaning,  differences  in 
tastes  of  foods  are  perceived,  and  they  form  a  basis  for  feelings 
of  liking  or  aversion  (p.  18).  Sensations  through  the  skin  of 
touch  and  temperature.  In  touch,  the  hands  most  concerned 
(p.  19).  Lips  and  tongue  very  important.  Temperature  of 
milk  or  of  bath  excites  strong  feelings  (p.  20).  Of  emotions, 
the  easiest  to  investigate  are  astonishment  and  fear.  Compare 
these  with  similar  states  in  animals  (p.  21).  In  the  child,  won- 
der may  result  in  a  humane  feeling  or  in  some  activity  of  intel- 
lect (p.  22).  The  manifestation  of  astonishment  in  the  child  is 
a  good  sign ;  it  ought  to  appear  from  the  fourth  to  the  sixth 
month.  Fear  is  a  teacher  (p.  23).  Fear  both  inherited  and  ac- 
quired. Example  of  the  mother  has  great  effect  (p.  24).  Tem- 
perament is  the  chief  thing.  Fourfold  classification  of  sanguine, 
choleric,  melancholy,  phlegmatic,  is  still  of  value  (p.  25).  It 
rests  on  a  physiological  basis.  Table  showing  comparative  excita- 
bility and  after-effect  (p.  26).  The  sanguine  child  to  be  treated 
differently  from  the  phlegmatic  (p.  27).  The  choleric  requires 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.         Xxi 

specially  judicious  regimen  (p.  28).    Children  injured  by  want 
of  proper  care,  and  by  being  waked  from  sleep  (p.  29). 

CHAPTER  lit. — The  First  Perceptions  and  Ideas.  After 
some  months  comes  sharp  discrimination  between  sense  impres- 
sions. Intellect  already  active  before  speech  is  acquired  (p.  30). 
First  activity  of  intellect  is  the  "  placing  "  of  impressions  in 
space  and  time.  Impressions  received  simultaneously  on  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  skin  suggest  the  idea  of  space  (p.  31).  The 
famous  question  of  Molyneux  as  to  the  child  born  blind  but 
receiving  sight  through  surgical  operation  (p.  32).  The  retina 
of  the  eye  is  a  skin :  sight  and  touch  closely  related  in  the 
child's  mind.  Combination  of  tactual  and  visual  impressions 
yields  the  idea  of  space  (p.  33).  The  brute  has  at  birth  a  nerv- 
ous mechanism  complete  and  ready  for  action ;  not  so  the  hu- 
man being.  Nativists  and  empiricists  both  right.  Space  intui- 
tions are  innate  in  the  brute ;  they  are  acquired  through  ex- 
perience in  man.  The  visual  sphere  in  the  brain  is  not  devel- 
oped in  the  newborn  babe.  He  is  mind-blind  (pp.  33,  34).  The 
ear  is  the  special  organ  of  the  time  sense ;  but  all  organs  are  to 
some  degree  serviceable  here,  as  impressions  upon  any  one  of 
them  may  be  successive  instead  of  simultaneous.  A  difference 
of  time  is  felt  (p.  35).  Now  sensation  becomes  perception,  be- 
ing denned  in  space  and  time  (p.  36).  When  the  cause  of  the 
perception  is  apprehended  the  perception  becomes  an  idea. 
Ideas  are  the  material  of  thought  (p.  37).  Ideas  may  be  sug- 
gested to  the  child  by  adults.  On  this  fact  is  based  the  educa- 
tional principle  of  "  Diverting  the  Attention  "  (p.  38).  '*  Sug- 
gestion "  explained.  Effects  of  wrong  application  of  it  (p.  39). 
Evil  results  of  leaving  the  child  too  much  with  servants  (p.  40). 
The  great  defect  in  education  is  that  there  is  in  the  first  period 
of  life  far  too  little  physiological  training,  and  at  a  later  period 
far  too  much  unphysiological  instruction.  Possibilities  of  bet- 
ter preparation  for  later  stages  (p.  41).  The  principle  of  divert- 
ing the  attention  through  suggestion  is  especially  applicable  to 
play.  Play  resembles  the  experimenting  of  the  naturalists  (p. 
42).  Newton's  comparison  of  himself  to  a  child  at  play  has 
deep  significance  (pp.  42,  43).  Great  strain  of  intellect  of 
the  child  in  play  (p.  43).  The  child  discovers  and  invents  (p. 


xxii        ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

44).  Playthings  of  poor  and  rich.  Sifting  of  them  is  needed ; 
other  danger  than  that  of  poisonous  colors  (p,  45).  Few  plays 
better  than  many.  Influence  of  play  on  character  (p.  46). 
Children  not  to  be  disturbed  when  playing  harmlessly,  nor  hin- 
dered, by  precepts,  from  teaching  themselves  (p.  47). 

CHAPTER  IV. — Origin  of  the  Will.  Our  destiny  determined 
largely  by  our  will  (p.  48).  Contrast  between  the  will-less  babe 
and  the  man  of  will.  The  change  may  be  traced  almost  step 
by  step.  The  only  sign  of  will  is  muscular  movement.  But 
the  child  makes  many  movements  before  it  has  will  (p.  49). 
Classification  of  movements  necessary  (p.  50).  Impulsive  move- 
ments (p.  52).  Reflex  (p.  53).  Instinctive  (p.  54).  These  all 
involuntary.  Imitative  movements  involve  an  idea  of  the 
movement  imitated.  The  first  successful  imitation  is  a  proof  of 
will  (p.  55).  Will  depends  on  ideas,  these  on  perceptions  formed 
out  of  sensations.  Hence  the  importance  of  allowing  the  in- 
fant freedom  and  opportunity  to  experience  sensations,  percep- 
tions, and  ideas,  and  to  practice  imitation.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  should  be  guarded  against  bad  ideas.  Education  begins 
with  the  first  hour  of  life.  But  it  is  in  poor  hands  for  the  most 
part  (p.  56).  Harm  done  by  preventing  the  natural  unfolding 
of  the  will  by  needless  prohibitions  (p.  57).  Practical  sugges- 
tions as  to  early  training  (p.  58).  Importance  of  health  of 
brain ;  of  sparing  the  senses,  and  of  exercising  them  (p.  59). 
The  child  at  first  his  own  teacher ;  later,  taught  by  others.  In 
both  cases  he  learns  by  sense-impressions,  which  excite  motor 
ideas,  which  result  in  willed  movements.  Theory  of  desire  as 
spring  of  voluntary  movements  unsatisfactory  (p.  60).  The 
crying  of  a  hungry  babe  is  not  caused  by  desire  of  food  but  by 
physical  discomfort.  Why  he  cries  from  discomfort  (pp.  61, 
62).  The  child's  first  attempts  to  control  natural  movements 
show  advance  in  growth  of  will  (p.  64).  But  inhibition  must 
be  urged  with  caution  (p.  65). 

CHAPTER  V. — The  Child's  First  Learning.  Error  of  suppos- 
ing that  the  first  learning  requires  a  teacher  and  the  use  of 
language.  The  child  learns  at  first  by  sense-perception  (p.  66). 
Pictures  less  useful  (p.  67).  Only  through  his  own  sensations 
can  the  child  learn  colors,  tones,  etc.  (p.  68).  Thinking  can  not 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.       xxiii 

be  taught  by  words,  although  the  highest  development  of  it  is 
attained  by  instruction  through  language  (p.  69).  Consequences 
of  one-sided  education,  either  all  language  or  no  language  (p.  70). 
Physiological  view.  Certain-  areas  in  the  brain  concerned  with 
special  intellectual  activities  (p.  71).  If  these  centers  are  not 
developed,  the  intellectual  activities  are  lacking  (p.  72).  True  in 
various  arts  (p.  73).  Facts  in  regard  to  animals  born  blind  or 
deaf  (p.  74).  Bearings  on  education.  Influence  long  exerted  in 
one  exclusive  direction  deforms  the  brain  and  prevents  har- 
monious culture  (p.  75).  Evil  consequences  in  form  of  nervous 
diseases  (p.  76).  Importance  of  "  letting  alone  "  in  infancy  (p.77). 
Physiological  deficiencies  of  the  brain  of  the  infant  (p.  78).  Too 
early  strain  dulls  the  faculties  (p.  79).  Learning  to  think  consists 
in  understanding  the  simple  elements  of  the  sense-impressions. 
Discrimination  takes  time.  The  child  discriminates  between  ideas 
(p.  80).  Likenesses  more  easily  apprehended  than  differences, 
and  more  agreeable;  hence  the  child's  instinct  for  classifying 
(p.  81).  This  involves  comparison,  the  basis  of  all  thinking. 
When  children  compare  objects,  they  are  thinking  (p.  82).  De- 
velopment of  thinking  like  that  of  the  animal  in  the  egg  (p.  83). 
CHAPTER  VI. — Intellect  without  Language  and  Language 
without  Intellect.  The  notion  that  there  can  be  no  thinking 
without  language  is  disproved  by  mere  observation  of  the  child 
(p.  84).  Examples  of  thinking  without  words  (pp.  85,  86).  The 
child  surpasses  the  most  intelligent  animals  in  thinking,  though 
he  may  know  less  of  language  (p.  87).  Answer  to  objection  that 
the  child's  superiority  is  owing  to  his  hearing  language.  Case 
of  those  who  have  no  verbal  language  (p.  88).  Ideas  must  pre- 
cede language;  without  them  development  is  slight,  as  in  chil- 
dren growing  up  in  solitude  (p.  89).  Forest-children  (pp.  90- 
92).  These  creatures  show  the  need  of  language  for  full  devel- 
opment (p.  93).  Language  alone,  however,  does  not  insure  de- 
velopment of  intellect ;  nor  does  superior  knowledge  of  words 
show  superior  thinking  power  in  the  child  (p.  94).  Learn- 
ing of  language  requires :  first,  a  plastic  brain  ;  second,  influ- 
ence of  human  beings  (p.  95).  The  ideas  that  must  precede  lan- 
guage are  gained  mostly  by  observation  of  looks  and  gestures 
(p.  96).  Child  watches  movements  of  persons  (p.  97).  Winking 


xxiv       ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

at  the  approach  of  something  to  the  eye  marks  an  advance  in 
cerebral  activity  (p.  98).  Holding  up  the  head  indicates  incipient 
thinking  (p.  99).  Other  movements  that  are  a  kind  of  language 
without  words  (p.  100).  Imitative  movements  show  delibera- 
tion. The  child's  looks  and  gestures  show  that  he  has  ideas, 
combines  and  separates  them,  before  he  can  speak  (p.  101). 

CHAPTER  VII. — The  Learning  of  Speech.  How  it  was  with 
us  before  we  could  speak  we  can  not  tell ;  and  the  speechless 
child  can  not  tell  how  it  is  with  him  (p.  103).  Need  of  special 
observations  of  the  period  in  which  language  is  acquired  (p. 
104).  Pleasure  in  such  observation  (p.  105).  The  child  must  not 
be  aware  that  he  is  observed.  The  child's  first  cry  has  no  signifi- 
cance as  language,  but  his  later  crying  has,  to  some  extent  (p.  106). 
The  first  syllabic  utterances  (ma,  ha)  are  not  language  until  to- 
ward the  end  of  the  first  year  (p.  107).  Apparatus  required  for 
speech — diagram  (p.  108).  The  speech-center  not  at  first  devel- 
oped in  the  brain.  The  child  learns  to  speak  by  imitation,  as  he 
learns  to  write  (p.  109).  Complicated  process  of  vocal  language 
(p.  111).  Association  of  sound  with  some  experience.  The  idea 
of  that  experience  is  called  up  by  the  sound,  and  then  the  idea 
prompts  the  reproduction  of  the  sound.  First  word  of  Prof. 
Preyer's  child  (p.  112).  Correct  use  of  words  gained  gradually 
(p.  113).  Original  word-formation  not  easy  to  observe  (p.  113). 
Bad  effects  of  "  baby-talk  "  (p.  114).  Children  imitate  peculiar- 
ities and  defects  of  speech  (p.  115).  Resemblance  between  the 
child's  defects  and  those  of  adults  disabled  by  disease  or  injury 
(p.  116).  The  brain  needs  development  through  growth  and  exer- 
cise. The  meaning  of  words  is  learned  largely  through  gestures 
and  looks  (p.  117).  Sounds  are  made  in  superfluity  at  first; 
then  a  selection  is  made  (p.  118).  A  few  sounds  are  first  in  all 
languages.  Explanation  of  this  (p.  119).  Differences  in  indi- 
viduals caused  by  differences  in  environment  (p.  119).  Number 
of  words  used  by  the  child  at  end  of  the  second  year.  Need  of 
extensive  observation  (p.  120).  Heredity  not  very  important  here 
(p.  121).  Essential  elements  in  the  origin  of  language  (p.  122). 

CHAPTER  VIII. — The  Formation  of  Higher  Ideas.  The  first 
words  of  the  child  do  not  show  that  he  has  attained  general 
ideas  (p.  123).  Words  help  him  to  discriminate  between  his 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.         Xxv 

ideas,  but  he  must  yet  make  use  of  memory  and  association. 
Difference  between  memory  for  words  and  memory  for  things 
(p.  124).  The  child's  memory  in  a  single  department  of  sense  is 
weak.  Experiment  of  Prof.  Mark  Baldwin  (pp.  125,  126).  A 
word  awakens  memory  of  previous  experience ;  an  experience 
similar  to  the  former  recalls  the  word  (p.  126).  This  makes  pos- 
sible the  rise  of  a  higher  idea.  The  old  word  does  not  quite  suit 
the  new  idea,  and  the  difference  needs  to  be  designated ;  and  the 
difference  is  abstract  (p.  127).  The  child  uses  language  chiefly 
for  the  expression  of  his  own  experiences  (p.  129).  Higher  con- 
cepts are  mostly  imparted  to  him  by  his  elders,  and  usually  too 
early  (p.  130).  Hugo  G-6'ring's  view  that  the  child  should  first 
learn  to  understand  his  own  experiences.  Folly  of  making  the 
child  learn  by  sheer  strain  of  memory  what  has  no  meaning  for 
him  (p.  131).  Physiological  nature  of  the  rise  of  concepts  and 
of  association  of  ideas  (pp.  132,  133).  In  age  the  nerve  connec- 
tions fail  from  weakness ;  in  childhood  they  are  not  yet  estab- 
lished (p.  134).  Remarkable  identity  of  first  concepts  in  all 
children,  yet  no  "  innate  ideas."  Explanation  of  it  (p.  135). 
Sensations  connected  with  food  are  most  important.  The  natu- 
ral tendency  to  think  must  produce  like  results  under  like  con- 
ditions (pp.  136,  137).  All  children  at  first  think  alike ;  later, 
differences  appear  (p.  138).  Compare  the  development  with 
that  of  the  egg  (pp.  139,  140). 

CHAPTER  IX. — Development  of  Self-consciousness.  Need  of 
observation  of  the  child  at  the  period  when  he  is  learning  to  dis- 
tinguish himself  from  other  things  (p.  141).  No  reason  for 
supposing  self-consciousness  to  be  given  at  birth  (p.  142).  An 
undivided  self-consciousness  doubtful  (p.  143).  Child's  attitude 
toward  his  own  body.  How  he  becomes  acquainted  with  it  (p. 
144).  It  is  at  first  a  foreign  object  (p.  145).  Sight  and  touch 
combine  to  give  acquaintance  with  it  (pp.  146, 147).  A  seeing  self 
and  a  feeling  self  and  a  hearing  self  (p.  148).  Smell  and  taste  less 
important  (p.  149).  Experience  of  pain  very  important.  Perma- 
nence of  the  self -consciousness  when  it  has  been  acquired  (p.  150). 
Connection  of  higher  nerve  centers  in  the  brain  with  lower  ones 
in  cervical  and  spinal  marrow.  Each  of  these  centers  has  its 
own  consciousness  (p.  151).  Only  the  lower  centers  operate  at 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

first ;  the  newborn  child  is  not  yet  rational  (p.  152).  The  lower 
centers  act  for  themselves  in  some  respects  all  through  life 
(p.  153).  The  cerebral  center  the  great  regulative  activity.  With 
development  of  this  the  child  becomes  responsible  for  his  action, 
has  a  conscience  (p.  154).  Different  grades  of  consciousness. 
Cerebral  cortex  regulates  motor  impulses  coming  from  sensory 
spheres  in  the  brain.  This  highest  consciousness  not  strictly 
unitary  (p.  155). 

CHAPTER  X. — Conditions  of  Mental  Development.  Sense- 
activity  in  general.  Feeling.  Special  sensations.  Intellect 
begins  with  the  co-ordinating  of  sensations  in  time  and  space. 
Perception.  Cause  of  the  perception  being  found,  an  idea  is 
generated.  The  sense-percept  becomes  through  abstraction  a 
concept.  Combination  and  separation  of  ideas  is  thought  (pp. 
157, 158).  The  child  gets  motor  ideas  by  observing  other  persons. 
He  learns  to  inhibit  impulsive  and  other  natural  movements, 
and  to  imitate  movements  and  vocal  sounds.  The  will  particu- 
larly shown  in  learning  to  speak  (p.  159).  Error  of  supposing  lan- 
guage necessary  for  the  existence  of  intellect.  Speech  a  develop- 
ment of  gesture.  The  human  race  has  passed  through  the  ex- 
perience of  the  child.  The  formation  of  concepts  greatly  ad- 
vanced by  language  (p.  160).  Language  should  not  be  forced 
on  the  child  in  order  to  give  him  concepts ;  his  brain  is  not 
enough  developed  for  these  (p.  161).  Fundamental  rules  for 
the  first  learning :  Spare  the  organs  of  sense  and  exercise  them 
(p.  162).  Talk  sensibly  with  the  child  that  is  learning  to  speak 
(pp.  162, 163).  Development  of  self-consciousness  begins  with 
acquaintance  with  the  body.  Different  centers  act  independent- 
ly at  first  (p.  163).  In  the  blending  of  the  different  elements 
that  make  the  self,  heredity  is  powerful.  But  education  may 
do  much.  Development  of  brain  dependent  on  what  is  pre- 
sented to  the  senses.  Example  of  Laura  Bridgman  (pp.  164- 
167).  A  physiological  pedagogy  will  work  by  selection  of  visual 
and  other  impressions  to  develop  good  tendencies  and  check 
evil  ones  (p.  168).  Too  much  is  done  that  is  unphysiological ; 
too  little  that  is  physiological.  Mothers  may  do  much,  if  they 
know  enough  and  will  not  leave  children  so  much  in  the  hands 
of  ignorant  persons  (p.  169). 


ON  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   SENSES   OF  THE   NEWBOKtf   CHILD. 

THE  senses  are  the  only  gate  at  which  the  world 
enters  the  mind  of  man.  If  that  gate  is  closed,  he  is 
not  properly  in  the  world,  is  not  in  connection  with 
it ;  the  world  does  not  exist  for  him ;  the  case  is  the 
same  as  in  dreamless  sleep.  In  fact,  if  a  man  is  de- 
prived of  one  single  sense  his  whole  view  of  the  world 
is  changed.  Blind  or  deaf  persons,  who  lack  from 
their  birth  one  of  the  two  principal  senses,  can  not 
rise  to  the  height  of  intellectual  development  that 
seems  attainable,  as  a  matter  of  course,  for  the  nor- 
mal child  even  in  play.  For  the  blind  man,  in  his 
view  of  things,  misses  not  only  impressions  of  light 
and  color,  but  also  the  forms  of  objects  beyond  his 
grasp;  while  letters,  printed  books — the  memory,  as 
it  were,  of  educated  man — are  accessible  to  him  only 
in  a  very  slight  degree.  He  is  like  the  climber  who 
can  not  get  up  for  lack  of  means.  And  the  deaf? 


2  ,  \     DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

His  world-view  lacks  not  only  tones,  the  entire  realm 
of  music  and  song,  but  speech,  the  living  word,  the 
very  thing  that  binds  man  to  man  and  holds  together, 
through  a  common  intellectual  life,  all  who  share  a 
higher  culture.  Any  compensation  that  can  be  af- 
forded through  the  senses  of  touch  and  sight  is,  even 
with  the  greatest  pains,  far  from  adequate. 

It  is,  then,  important  above  all  to  keep  open  the 
two  higher  senses  in  earliest  youth.  The  newborn 
child  enters  a  world  of  light  and  sound,  but  he  can 
not  yet  see  or  hear.  He  does  not  feel,  in  the  degree 
that  he  will  feel  at  a  later  time;  single  pricks  of  a 
needle  often  produce  not  the  least  expression  of  pain 
in  him,  and  in  the  first  moment  of  existence  he  can 
not  properly  smell  or  taste.  All  this  he  must  first 
learn. 

In  this  matter  it  is  singular  enough  that  the  last- 
mentioned  sense,  taste,  is  universally  the  first  to  be 
learned.  At  any  rate,  only  a  few  days  pass  before 
newly  born  children  distinguish  sour,  bitter,  or  salt 
from  sweet.  The  taste  of  sweet  is  plainly  preferred  at 
the  very  beginning.  The  little  countenance,  after  the 
wetting  of  the  tongue  with  glycerin  or  with  a  con- 
centrated solution  of  sugar,  wears  almost  invariably 
an  expression  of  satisfaction.  But  let  the  tongue  be 
touched  with  a  solution  of  quinine,  warm  and  not 
too  much  diluted,  or  with  common  salt,  or  let  it  be 
smeared  with  a  crystal  of  tartaric  acid,  and  movements 


THE  SENSES  OF  THE  NEWBORN  CHILD.         3 

of  repulsion  readily  appear,  accompanied  with  chok- 
ing, with  screaming,  and  with  an  expression  of  ex- 
treme displeasure  on  the  face.  It  is  true  that  alterna- 
tions of  mimetic  expression  are  frequent  in  the  very 
first  period  of  life,  so  that  the  conscientious  observer 
must  often  be  in  doubt  whether  the  various  tastes  are 
really  correctly  distinguished.  The  nervous  apparatus 
in  general  is,  in  fact,  not  yet  fully  developed.  The 
nerve  extremities  in  the  delicate  taste-bulbs  of  the 
tongue,  the  gustatory-nerve  fibers,  the  gustatory  sphere 
in  the  brain,  as  yet  lack  exercise,  practice.  But  that 
these  portions  work  rightly  earlier  than  the  other  or- 
gans of  sense  is  certainly  of  great  advantage  to  the 
young  child  as  well  as  to  the  newborn  mammal,  be- 
cause thereby  the  discrimination  between  wholesome 
food  and  harmful  is  made  possible  early,  and  soon  be- 
comes very  much  more  acute. 

For  the  same  reason,  the  surprisingly  rapid  devel- 
opment of  the  faculty  of  smell  in  the  newborn  human 
being  must  likewise  be  of  advantage  to  him.  Directly 
after  birth,  indeed,  and  often  for  several  days,  the 
child  is  not  able  to  distinguish  with  certainty,  at 
every  trial,  between  substances  of  agreeable  and  those 
of  disagreeable  smell.  Very  often  he  mistakes  some- 
thing he  can  smell  for  something  to  eat — e.  g.,  he  will 
suck  steadily  at  the  fragrant  hyacinth.  Still,  it  is 
probably  possible  for  him  by  the  sense  of  smell  alone 
to  distinguish  the  breast  of  the  nurse  from  that  of  his 


4         DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

mother,  and  the  milk  of  the  cow  from  the  milk  of  the 
breast,  before  it  touches  his  lips,  as  early  as  one  day 
after  birth.  At  any  rate  the  normal  child  can  smell 
many  things  rightly  when  a  few  hours  or,  at  most,  a 
few  days  old ;  for  his  countenance  changes  in  a  very 
marked  manner  when  ill-smelling  substances  are  of- 
fered to  him,  or  when  he  is  put  to  a  breast  that  is 
disagreeable,  whereas  he  has  an  expression  of  satis- 
faction when  smelling  good  milk  and  a  clean  skin. 

The  third  of  the  lower  senses,  so  called — the  cuta- 
neous sense — is  developed  much  less  rapidly,  although 
the  nerves  of  the  skin  are  very  excitable  from  the 
first.  The  distinction  between  cold  and  warmth,  and 
between  different  kinds  of  contact,  is  extremely  im- 
perfect in  the  first  days  of  life.  That  the  child  cries 
in  a  bath  too  cool  for  him  does  not  show  that  the 
water  is  felt  as  cold,  but  merely  as  uncomfortable,  just 
as  warm  water  produces  very  early  a  most  content- 
ed expression.  The  discrimination  that  comes  later 
through  the  sense  of  temperature,  the  preference  of 
contacts  that  occasion  an  agreeable  feeling  of  warmth, 
the  dislike  of  washings  that  occasion  the  disagreeable 
feeling  of  cold,  can  be  developed  only  by  practice, 
through  alternation  of  the  two  opposed  impressions, 
which  alone  makes  comparison  possible  ;  and  without 
comparison  there  can  be  no  discrimination  between 
cold  and  warmth.  How  little  ability  the  child  has  at 
the  beginning  to  distinguish  strong  pressure  from 


THE  SENSES  OF  THE  NEWBORN  CHILD.         5 

weak,  a  grip  or  thrust  that  hurts  from  a  mild  one,  the 
cold,  wet  hand  from  the  warm,  dry  one,  we  discover 
by  touching  the  surface  of  the  body  at  all  possible 
places ;  for  the  child  does  not  resist,  does  not  make 
even  the  most  ordinary  defensive  movements  of  a 
reflex  character  at  the  unpleasant  impressions,  nor 
does  he  smile  at  the  pleasant  impressions.  All  these 
distinctions  in  the  province  of  the  cutaneous  sense  are 
the  result  of  very  frequent  repetitions  of  changes  in 
the  external  impressions  received  during  the  child's 
waking  hours.  Now,  inasmuch  as  the  human  being 
in  the  first  period  of  his  life  is  asleep  much  more  than 
he  is  awake,  the  time  that  remains  for  him  daily  for 
learning  to  distinguish  these  impressions  is  rather 
short,  and  accordingly  the  period  of  learning  is  long. 
This  is  true  particularly  of  the  higher  senses,  sight 
and  hearing,  on  the  development  of  which  most  de- 
pends. 

Every  child  when  just  born  is  completely  deaf,  and 
sometimes  several  days  elapse  before  the  tympanum, 
with  the  auditory  ossicle,  is  capable  of  conducting 
external  impressions  of  sound  properly  to  the  brain, 
which  is  as  yet  by  no  means  sufficiently  developed 
for  hearing.  And  even  when  these  days  have  passed, 
the  hearing  must  be  called  very  bad.  A  difficulty  of 
hearing  continues  to  exist  normally  for  a  long  time, 
and  this  peculiarity  is  of  great  benefit  to  the  child ; 

for,  if  he  were  able  to  hear  as  well  as  an  adult,  he 
3 


6         DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

would  be  altogether  too  much  disturbed  just  in  that 
first  period  of  life  when  he  needs  to  rest  most  of  the 
time,  in  order  to  further  the  processes  of  nutrition, 
the  forming  of  fat,  the  solidification  of  the  bones,  the 
regulation  of  the  respiration  and  of  the  activity  of 
the  heart.  He  would  be  frightened  in  his  sleep,  too, 
and  exposed  to  violent  movements,  even  to  convul- 
sions. Still,  there  are  children  who  as  early  as  six 
hours  after  birth  indicate  by  a  movement  of  the  eye- 
lids a  certain  capacity  for  hearing  when  unusually 
loud  noises  are  made  close  to  the  ear.  Whether  in 
this  case  the  movement  of  the  lid  is  to  be  regarded 
as  occasioned  by  the  sound  alone,  or  possibly  by  the 
current  of  air,  must  be  uncertain.  The  latter  would 
seem  unlikely,  inasmuch  as  all  adult  human  beings, 
without  exception,  while  they  wink  involuntarily  at  a 
loud  report  or  other  sudden  noise,  do  not  wink  at  a 
noiseless  current  of  air,  except  when  it  is  very  strong. 
In  any  case,  no  child  is  able  to  hear,  out  of  the  many 
thousand  loving  words  its  mother  speaks  in  the  first 
weeks  of  its  life,  more  than  single,  loudly  uttered 
ones ;  and  as  to  understanding  them,  of  course  that 
is  out  of  the  question.  But  the  child  becomes  in 
this  way  accustomed  to  its  mother's  voice,  and  there- 
fore at  a  later  period  recognizes  that  more  easily  than 
other  voices. 

With  the  sense  of  sight  in  the  newborn  child  the 
case  is  in  many  respects  much  the  same  as  with  the 


THE  SENSES  OF  THE  NEWBORN  CHILD.         7 

sense  of  hearing ;  for,  although  the  child  does  not, 
like  puppies  and  kittens,  come  into  the  world  with 
the  eyelids  tightly  closed,  and  can  not  be  called  blind 
in  the  strict  meaning  of  the  word,  yet  he  is  quite  in- 
capable of  seeing.  During  far  the  greater  part  of 
the  day  the  eyes  are  actually  closed,  or  the  opening 
of  the  lids  is  very  small.  Closer  observation  shows, 
however,  that  as  early  as  a  few  minutes  after  birth 
a  contraction  of  the  pupil  takes  place  upon  the  en- 
trance of  moderately  bright  light.  This  shows  that 
there  exists  already  sensibility  to  light.  By  so  simple 
an  observation  is  proved  incontestably  the  permeabil- 
ity of  the  entire  nerve-path  from  the  retina  through 
the  optic  nerves  to  the  central  portions,  from  these 
back  through  the  motor  nerve  of  the  eye,  the  oculo- 
motorius.  It  is  easy,  also,  to  convince  one's  self  that 
very  bright,  dazzling  lights  occasion,  even  on  the  first 
day,  if  the  eyes  are  open,  a  close  shutting  of  the 
lids;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  moderately  bright 
surfaces  cause  the  aperture  of  the  lids  to  widen  to 
the  extent  of  a  millimeter.  Such  facts  demonstrate 
that  sensibility  to  light  exists  in  the  human  being 
from  the  very  beginning,  in  contrast  with  several  of 
the  mammals. 

But  no  color  whatever  can  be  distinguished  from 
any  other,  nor  are  boundary  lines,  intervals,  or  forms 
perceived.  The  whole  field  of  vision  makes  a  con- 
fused mass  of  bright  and  less  bright  portions,  in 


8         DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

which,  in  general,  only  the  grosser  differences  of  lu- 
minosity are  perceived. 

The  field  of  vision  at  the  beginning  of  life  re- 
sembles a  chart,  placed  close  to  the  eyes,  upon  which 
the  colored,  the  bright,  and  the  dark  parts  of  the 
surface  blend  with  one  another  so  that  nothing  is  dis- 
tinctly apprehended.  It  is  idle,  therefore,  to  dispute 
whether  the  newborn  infant  sees  an  object  single, 
not  double,  with  his  two  eyes ;  or  whether  he  sees  it 
upright,  or  upside  down;  or  whether  he  confounds 
right  and  left  in  the  field  of  vision.  In  reality  he 
sees  no  objects  at  all  yet,  and  is  very  slow  in  learn- 
ing to  distinguish  between  above  and  below,  left  and 
right,  near  and  far,  by  means  of  the  motions  of  things, 
by  the  movements  of  his  own  eyes,  and  by  his  at- 
tempts to  seize  objects.  The  alternation  of  brighter 
and  darker  is  not  observed  until  it  takes  place  with 
larger  surfaces  and  with  a  certain  rapidity  not  ex- 
cessive or  deficient — unless  the  bright  is  dazzlingly 
bright,  like  the  flame  of  a  lamp.  In  the  latter  case 
the  brightness  is  felt  at  once,  for  it  occasions  a  quick 
shutting  of  the  eyes.  Where  this  shutting  does  not 
take  place  in  the  very  earliest  period,  there  is,  in  fact, 
a  doubt  as  to  the  normal  constitution  of  the  eye  and 
of  the  portion  of  the  nervous  system  belonging  to  it. 

In  every  sensation  of  light,  therefore,  including,  of 
course,  the  first  one  of  the  newborn  child,  we  must 
make  a  threefold  physiological  distinction :  first,  the 


THE  SENSES  OF  THE  NEWBORN  CHILD.         9 

excitement  of  the  extreme  end  portion  of  the  optic 
nerve,  the  retina  in  the  back  part  of  the  eye ;  second, 
the  propagation  of  the  excitation  through  the  fibers  of 
the  optic  nerves  to  the  very  complicated  central  por- 
tions ;  third,  the  transformation  of  the  nerve-excita- 
tion into  a  sensation  of  light  in  these  portions.  All 
the  three  constituents  of  the  nerve-excitation  that 
produces  the  sensation  of  light — the  peripheral  in 
the  eye,  the  conductive  in  the  nerve,  the  central  in 
the  brain — may  be  lacking  at  the  beginning  of  life ; 
and  it  is  evident  that  those  children  who  do  not  react 
at  all  upon  strong  light  must  be  suspected  either  of 
not  having  normal  retinas,  or  of  not  being  sufficient- 
ly developed  as  to  the  conducting  fibers  of  the  optic 
nerve  or  the  portions  of  the  brain  belonging  thereto. 
In  fact,  the  development  in  the  case  of  children  born 
from  four  to  six  weeks  too  soon  is  generally  behind- 
hand, and  the  extraordinary  sluggishness  with  which 
they  respond  to  the  most  various  external  impres- 
sions, the  slowness  with  which  they  learn  to  see — i.  e., 
to  interpret  their  sensations  of  light — gives  rise  to  the 
conjecture  that  in  particular  their  visual  sphere,  the 
upper  back  part  of  the  cerebral  cortex,  is  the  most 
in  arrears.  The  brain  of  the  newly  born  differs  from 
that  of  the  adult  at  first  view,  apart  from  the  small- 
ness  of  it,  in  the  smoothness  of  its  superficies.  It 
does  not,  indeed,  lack  the  principal  fissures  and  con- 
volutions, but  they  are  shallow,  in  part  barely  recog- 


10       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

nizable,  while  the  secondary  and  tertiary  fissures  are 
as  yet  almost  totally  wanting.  Not  till  the  fifth  week, 
according  to  the  investigations  of  Sernoff,  are  the 
accessory  sulci  and  convolutions  present.  The  brain 
of  the  newborn  child  is  a  sort  of  imperfect  model 
of  a  human  brain  in  reduced  proportions,  needing 
yet  a  good  deal  of  carving,  chiseling,  and  polishing ; 
and  microscopic  investigation  acquaints  us  with  great 
differences  between  the  two,  in  reference  to  the  cor- 
tical layer  of  the  cerebrum,  which  is  to  be  looked 
upon  as  the  material  substratum  of  all  higher  men- 
tal activity.  This  is  the  so-called  gray  matter  of  the 
brain,  and  it  is  called  "  gray  "  because  in  comparison 
with  the  conducting  white  or  medullary  substance  it 
actually  looks  gray,  on  account  of  the  predominance 
in  it  of  ganglionic  cells.  These  it  is  which,  along 
with  their  conducting  fibers,  are  still  lacking  in  the 
newly  born,  or  are  present  only  in  very  small  quan- 
tity, whereas  after  six  weeks  their  presence  can  be 
more  easily  demonstrated.  Later,  when  the  brain  is 
fully  grown,  the  number  of  them  amounts  probably 
to  several  hundred  millions. 

I  by  no  means  intend  to  assert  that  the  ganglionic 
cells  are  the  sole  or  even  the  chief  agents  of  all  the 
higher  intellectual  processes ;  for  children  without 
these  cells  manifest  certain  signs  of  mind,  and  much 
intelligence  is  found  in  animals  with  very  few  gan- 
glionic cells.  But  it  is  certain  that  in  man  these  cells 


THE  SENSES  OF  THE  NEWBORN  CHILD.       H 

increase  with  extraordinary  rapidity  as  his  mental  de- 
velopment increases;  and  we  are  forced  to  attribute 
to  them  an  important  role  in  all  cerebral  functions, 
perhaps  that  of  assisting  nutrition.  Possibly,  indeed, 
it  is  they  that  effect  the  fresh  formation  of  the  proto- 
plasm that  spreads  itself,  as  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment goes  on,  more  and  more  in  extraordinarily  fine 
fibers,  like  a  network,  in  the  gray  substance ;  and  pos- 
sibly this  is  the  true  substratum  of  the  mind,  and 
hence  the  "  seat  of  the  soul." 

^  However  this  may  be,  no  distinction  of  the  sensa- 
tions in  any  department  of  sense  can  be  supposed  to 
take  place  without  the  development  of  the  cerebral 
cortex ;  and  even  when  the  cortex  is  superior  in  qual- 
ity and  the  external  conditions  are  the  most  favorable, 
it  takes  much  practice  to  acquire  in  any  department 
of  sense  a  discrimination  of  sensations  that  comes  any- 
where near  the  acuteness  attained  by  the  ear  of  the 
musician.  Who  can  distinguish  from  one  another  the 
various  sensations  of  smell  that,  in  youth  as  well  as  in 
later  life,  crowd  in  upon  us  in  overwhelming  number? 
They  can  not  be  indicated  by  language;  the  child 
does  not  learn  to  name  them ;  nobody  is  interested  to 
designate  for  him  the  agreeable  and  the  disagreeable 
odors  as  accurately  as  tones  are  named  in  instruction 
on  the  piano.  It  is  the  same  with  the  sense  of  taste, 
certain  sensations  of  which  all  through  life,  as  in  child- 
hood, are  very  frequently  confounded  with  sensations 


12       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

of  smell.  How  common  it  is  for  people  to  speak  of 
foods  and  wines  as  having  a  good  taste,  which  in  real- 
ity have  no  taste  at  all.  but  simply  an  agreeable  aroma ! 

Finally,  as  to  the  cutaneous  sense.  For  tempera- 
tures, in  the  discrimination  of  which  we  are  not  spe- 
cially instructed,  we  have  only  the  few  terms,  hot, 
warm,  lukewarm,  cool,  cold,  and  must  then  resort  to 
the  thermometer.  But  for  the  various  sensations  of 
contact  and  the  muscular  feelings  we  have  no  ther- 
mometer ;  and  the  terms  we  use,  thrown  together  in- 
discriminately, such  as  rough  and  smooth,  hard  and 
soft,  wet  and  dry,  pointed  and  blunt,  relate  much 
more  to  combined  sensations  of  touch  and  muscular 
sense  than  to  contact  alone.  As  to  tones  and  colors, 
also,  there  is  a  sad  neglect  of  training  in  discrimina- 
tion and  accurate  naming,  in  the  great  majority  of 
families. 

A  number  of  children  in  the  English  schools  have 
been  tested  in  reference  to  their  color-sense,  and  it  ap- 
pears that  an  unexpectedly  large  fraction  of  them 
were  wholly  incapable  of  telling  correctly  the  funda- 
mental colors  which  differ  most  from  one  another — 
viz.,  red,  green,  blue,  and  yellow,  or  of  naming  the 
degrees  of  luminosity,  "white,  gray,  and  black,"  al- 
though the  tests  were  easy  ones.  To  infer  from  this 
that  such  children  are  color-blind  would  be  altogeth- 
er inadmissible.  They  are  unpracticed;  their  retina 
is  normal,  the  optic  nerve  normal,  but  their  visual 


THE  SENSES  OF  THE  NEWBORN  CHILD.       13 

sphere  is  unpracticed.  They  know  the  words  that 
name  colors,  and  they  have  the  sensations  of  color  all 
right,  but  they  do  not  know  which  words  and  colors 
belong  together.  They  do  not  understand  their  own 
sensations  of  color.  This  is  the  way  it  is  with  the  little 
child.  I  put  color-tests  to  my  child  for  a  series  of 
years.  Before  he  could  talk,  he  was  unable  to  distin- 
guish green  and  blue  as  surely  as  red  and  yellow,  and 
white  and  black ;  and  he  confounded  green  and  blue 
with  gray,  and  at  a  later  period  he  confounded  their 
names. 

In  regard  to  their  color-sense,  all  children  who 
have  not  had  special  training  in  this  direction  show 
great  uncertainty  up  to  the  end  of  the  second  year, 
and  even  in  the  third  year  they  often  waver  in  judg- 
ment to  such  a  degree  that  they  might  be  supposed  to 
be  color-blind.  But  where  this  ignorance  of  colors 
continues  into  later  life,  it  is  very  often  the  result  not 
of  organic  defect  in  the  child  but  of  neglect  on  the 
part  of  the  parents. 

In  many  respects  the  case  is  similar  with  tones. 
No  child  whose  organ  of  hearing  is  normally  con- 
structed is  born  absolutely  unmusical.  Here,  again, 
the  deficiency  in  discriminating  tones,  and  sensations 
of  sound  in  general,  may  be  owing  to  deficient  exer- 
cise of  the  central  portion  in  the  brain,  particularly  of 
the  auditory  sphere,  which  receives  the  excitations 
that  come  from  the  ear  through  the  auditory  nerves, 


14       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

bringing  with  them  sensations  of  sound.  We  can 
never  tell  whether  a  child  is  absolutely  unmusical  un- 
less we  give  him  opportunity,  and  early  opportunity, 
to  distinguish  tones.  Do  this,  and  it  is  soon  apparent 
whether  he  is  to  have  a  musical  ear — a  thing  depend- 
ent mainly  on  practice — and  whether  he  has  a  sense 
for  melodies  and  thus  a  memory  for  successions  of 
tones.  For  he  will  very  early  begin  himself  to  sing ; 
often  much  earlier  than  to  talk,  if  these  natural  gifts, 
favored  in  some  degree  by  heredity,  are  strongly  em- 
phasized in  him.  But  if  opportunity  is  lacking  in 
earliest  youth  for  the  discrimination  of  tones,  if  the 
child  has  no  exercise  of  his  own  vocal  cords,  beyond 
his  babbling  to  himself,  if  some  heed  is  not  very  early 
given  to  his  hearing,  his  case  may  easily  be  like  that 
of  children  pronounced  to  be  color-blind  who  have 
never  been  taught  to  distinguish  colors.  He  will  be 
declared  to  be  without  talent  and  utterly  unmusical, 
when  he  is  not  so. 

An  absolute  lack  of  the  musical  ear,  and  hence  of 
ability  to  distinguish  tones  of  a  certain  pitch,  is  always 
an  anomaly,  a  sort  of  deafness  either  inborn  or  ac- 
quired, just  as  much  as  the  inability  to  distinguish 
certain  colors  is  an  anomaly.  It  is  therefore  to  be  de- 
sired that  in  schools  of  little  children,  unless  there  are 
imperative  reasons  of  an  external  character,  no  child 
shall  be  excluded  beforehand  from  instruction  in  sing- 
ing and  music,  but  only  in  case  he  makes  no  progress 


THE  SENSES    OF  THE  NEWBORN  CHILD.       15 

at  all  after  a  somewhat  protracted  trial.  We  can  notv 
indeed,  go  so  far  as  did  the  great  English  naturalist, 
Thomas  Young,  at  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
when  he  declared  that  every  healthy  human  being  can 
learn  everything  that  any  human  being  has  ever 
learned.  But  that  there  has  been  too  much  neglect 
in  the  opposite  direction  in  regard  to  the  development 
of  the  senses  of  the  newoorn  numan  being,  is  certain. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FEELINGS,   EMOTIONS,   AND  TEMPERAMENTS   IN 
INFANCY. 

BESIDES  the  five  special  senses  which  deal  with  ex- 
ternal impressions,  there  are,  as  we  know,  in  the  adult 
human  being  general  senses  also,  through  which  we 
have  feelings  of  the  body — e.  g.,  of  pain  and  pleasure, 
discomfort  and  comfort,  feelings  of  a  general  charac- 
ter— in  a  word,  general  feelings.  The  newborn  child 
doubtless  brings  with  him  into  the  world,  already  de- 
veloped, the  nerves  indispensable  to  such  feelings, 
feelings  that  are  aroused  by  internal  stimulus.  For 
who  would  deny  that  the  child  becomes  thirsty 
through  the  enormous  loss  of  water  in  exhalation  of 
breath  and  through  the  skin ;  and  that  crying,  which 
ceases  immediately  when  milk  of  the  right  kind  is 
given  him,  is  a  sign  of  discomfort,  and  discomfort 
arising  from  the  need  of  nourishment  ?  The  voice  of 
the  little  child  is,  even  at  a  very  early  period,  a  differ- 
ent one  when  he  cries  from  hunger  from  what  it  is 
when  he  cries  from  pain.  But  although  such  differ- 


TEMPERAMENTS  IN  INFANCY.  If 

ences  in  bodily  feelings  assert  themselves  at  the  very 
beginning  of  life,  yet  a  separation  of  them  like  that  in 
the  adult  is  certainly  far  from  complete ;  in  fact,  dur- 
ing later  life  no  human  being  gets  so  far  as  to  separate 
all  his  general  feelings  as  sharply  from  one  another, 
and  to  designate  them  by  words  and  signs — such  as 
notes  or  numbers — as  he  does  in  the  case  of  colors  and 
tones,  and  to  locate  them  definitely  in  his  body  as  he 
does  the  impressions  of  taste. 

I  have  in  mind  here  not  merely  headache,  neural- 
gia of  the  face,  inflammations,  stomach-ache,  side- 
ache,  nausea,  from  which  little  children  whose  health 
is  generally  good  may  suffer  like  adults,  although 
they  can  not  tell  their  suffering  :  I  mean  also  feelings 
not  in  the  least  related  to  diseased  conditions,  such 
feelings  as  hunger  and  thirst,  satiety  and  disgust, 
fatigue  and  sleepiness.  How  hard  it  is  to  separate 
the  members  of  these  couples  from  each  other  in  the 
grown  person !  In  the  little  child  these  feelings  are 
yet  more  like  waves  pouring  over  one  another,  and  no- 
body takes  the  pains  to  bring  them  separately  to  the 
child's  consciousness,  because  no  one,  not  even  the 
incorrigible  hypochondriac,  is  really  well  informed  in 
this  department  of  general  feelings. 

Meanwhile  it  is  of  peculiar  interest  to  the  observer 
to  trace  the  manner  in  which  the  sense-impressions 
that  throng  in  upon  the  little  child  in  prodigious 
abundance  gradually  lead  to  definite  sensations  and  to 


18       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

higher  feelings  connected  with  these,  within  the  prov- 
ince of  the  special  senses. 

We  note  very  early  that  the  foreground  is  occupied 
by  nourishment.  The  hungry  child  is  indifferent  to 
everything  else  until  his  hunger  is  appeased.  During 
his  greedy  feeding,  all  attempts  to  divert  his  attention 
— it  is  not  till  late  that  we  can  direct  his  attention  at 
all — from  the  gratifying  of  his  demand  for  food  are 
at  first  almost  absolute  failures.  And  inasmuch  as 
during  the  first  few  months  hunger  and  thirst  are 
naturally  always  appeased  simultaneously  by  milk 
alone,  it  is  conceivable  that  here  first  the  faculty  of 
sensuous  discrimination  is  developed  to  some  degree 
of  acuteness.  After  the  weaning  from  an  exclusive 
diet  of  milk  has  begun,  the  differences  in  taste  of  the 
first  kinds  of  food  given  are  perceived  by  the  child 
with  surprising  accuracy.  To  be  sure,  the  fact  that  a 
flavor  of  salt,  a  little  ginger  or  lemon- juice  is  already 
enough  to  call  forth  defensive  movements  as  signs  of 
refusal,  does  not  authorize  us  to  infer  the  existence 
of  emotions  of  aversion,  disappointment,  anger ;  for 
even  the  child  born  without  a  brain  makes,  under  the 
same  circumstances,  the  same  defensive  movements 
with  just  as  strange  grimaces,  and  likewise  puts  out 
the  tongue  and  shuts  the  eyes  tight.  But  these  gusta- 
tory reflexes  at  any  rate  form  the  necessary  basis  for 
the  later  appearance  of  emotions  in  the  department  of 
taste ;  gustatory  feelings,  one  might  say,  which,  as  we 


TEMPERAMENTS  IN  INFANCY.  19 

know,  readily  express  themselves  upon  the  features  of 
adults,  and  are  with  difficulty  controlled.  The  case  is 
similar  as  to  differences  not  to  be  expressed  in  words, 
in  the  smell  of  foods — for  the  infant  chiefly  in  the 
smell  of  milk.  In  this  respect  the  adult  human  be- 
ing remains,  in  fact,  for  the  most  part  on  the  plane 
of  the  infant  all  his  life  long,  although  the  feelings 
of  sympathy  and  antipathy,  evoked  by  the  sense  of 
smell,  are  often  unconquerable,  and  may  play  an  im- 
portant part.  The  olfactory  lobe  in  the  human  brain 
is  small  in  proportion  compared  with  that  of  most 
mammals,  and  remains  backward  because  the  interest 
in  sensations  of  smell  is  much  slighter  in  the  human 
than  in  the  brute  world.  Blind  and  deaf  children 
have,  notwithstanding,  a  finer  sense  of  smell,  presum- 
ably, than  those  who  are  in  possession  of  all  the 
senses,  because,  when  one  sense  is  lacking,  the  organs 
of  the  others  get  a  better  development  on  account  of 
more  frequent  use. 

The  sensations  experienced  by  the  little  child 
through  the  skin  fall  very  early,  no  doubt,  into  two 
well-marked  groups :  sensations  of  touch  and  sensa- 
tions of  temperature.  In  the  first  group  the  chief 
office  is  performed  by  the  hands,  which  are  obliged  to 
master  a  disproportionally  greater  variety  of  impres- 
sions than  are  all  other  portions  of  the  body,  particu- 
larly the  feet.  The  lips  and  the  tongue  are  the  only 
parts  that  might  vie  with  the  finger-tips  for  the  pre- 


20      DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

cedence.  In  sucking,  which  is  the  chief  occupation 
of  ev,ery  human  being  during  his  first  half  year,  and 
which,  in  fact,  has  given  him  his  name  of  "  suckling," 
the  sensory  nerves  of  the  lips  and  tongue  have  an 
extraordinary  amount  and  degree  of  exercise.  Here 
is  the  source  of  the  greatest  enjoyment,  no  matter 
whether  the  child  is  lying  at  his  mother's  breast  or  is 
provided  with  a  nursing-bottle :  upon  this  is  concen- 
trated all  the  incipient  intellectual  life,  and  hence  it 
seems  natural  that  new  objects,  if  small  and  portable, 
should  be  put  into  the  mouth,  or  at  least  brought  to 
the  mouth,  as  soon  as  the  child  can  seize  with  sure- 
ness,  after  the  lapse  of  the  first  three  months.  The 
temperature  of  the  object  touched  is,  however,  of 
great  importance  here.  If  milk  is  but  a  little  too  cool 
or  too  warm,  it  is  refused.  If  the  water  of  the  bath  is 
a  single  degree  cooler  than  usual,  or  if  it  is  considera- 
bly warmer,  then  the  child,  who  is  unfortunately  too 
much  spoiled  in  this  regard  here  in  Germany,  screams 
as  if  a  wrong  had  been  done  him,  or  as  if  he  were 
frightened,  and  he  may  very  early  make  movements  of 
desire  that  leave  no  doubt  of  the  existence  of  unpleas- 
ant feelings  caused  by  too  great  coolness  or  warmth. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  not  possible  to  determine  with 
certainty  the  date  of  the  child's  first  emotions  proper. 
Comparatively  the  easiest  to  investigate  in  little  chil- 
dren, with  reference  to  their  physiognomic  expression 
and  their  psychogenetic  significance,  are  fear,  in  its 


TEMPERAMENTS  IN  INFANCY.  21 

two  forms  of  anxiety  and  fright,  and  astonishment. 
It  is  instructive  to  compare  with  them  the  correspond- 
ing states  in  animals.  When  the  bird-dog  is  aston- 
ished at  the  flames  the  first  time  a  fire  is  made  on  the 

4 

hearth  in  his  master's  room,  or  when  he  is  terrified  by 
the  bursting  of  a  soap-bubble  floating  in  the  air,  or 
when  he  wonders  at  the  movements  of.  a  fan,  which 
seems  to  vanish  on  being  clapped  together  and  to  ap- 
pear again  when  opened,  he  is  in  the  situation  of  the 
little  child  in  whom  that  which  is  incomprehensible 
(in  a  literal  sense,  that  which  can  not  be  grasped  or 
prehended,)  arouses  astonishment;  but  the  difference 
between  the  human  being  and  the  brute  is,  even  at 
this  early  stage,  an  immeasurable  one.  For  the  first 
astonishment  of  the  child  leads  on  to  the  careful 
consideration  of  a  countless  number  of  sense-impres- 
sions, each  one  of  which  gives  to  his  little  brain  a 
special  stamp,  as  it  were ;  and  later  these  all  com- 
bine, as  memory-images,  to  form  new  thoughts.  The 
brute,  on  the  contrary,  stops  at  simple  astonish- 
ment, and  this  is  speedily  diminished  with  repetition 
of  the  same  impression.  Even  the  child  of  complete- 
ly nprmal  development  is  certainly  dulled  by  repeti- 
tion of  similar  impressions :  these  lose  the  stimulus 
of  novelty  that  excites  astonishment,  but  not  without 
leaving  behind  them  memory  impressions  that  con- 
tinue to  be  influential ;  and  the  older  the  child,  the 
more  do  impressions  of  another  kind,  which  are  far 


22       DEVELOPMENT   OF   MIND  IN  THE   CHILD. 

too  subtile  to  be  noticed  by  a  brute,  produce  the  most 
enduring  effects  by  exciting  the  child's  astonishment. 
For  instance,  wonder  is  caused  by  the  sight  of  a  lame 
beggar  who  has  fallen  in  the  snow  and  is  receiving 
help  from  a  stranger,  or  by  the  feeding  of  an  animal. 
Through  such  experiences  not  only  is  pity  stirred,  but 
in  some  children  the  foundation  is  laid  for  some  virtue, 
like  benevolence,  generosity,  unselfishness,  after  the 
original  astonishment  has  been  overcome.  On  the 
other  hand,  wonder  at  simple — but  to  the  child  unin- 
telligible— phenomena,  such  as  the  flying  of  a  bird,  the 
creeping  of  a  snail,  the  falling  of  a  plaything  from  the 
table,  the  rebounding  of  the  ball  when  it  is  thrown 
against  the  wall,  must  arouse  the  activity  of  the  intel- 
lect. The  search  after  the  cause  of  the  unintelligible 
falling  when  the  ball  rolls  off  the  table,  and  of  the 
equally  incomprehensible  bounding  when  it  is  thrown 
from  the  hand,  continues  with  many  children  for 
weeks,  and  even  for  months. 

This  school  of  astonishment  every  human  being 
must  go  through  for  himself.  A  child  incapable  of 
wonder,  not  dull,  though  supposed  by  superficial  judg- 
ment to  be  so,  yet  not  originally  endowed  with  sensi- 
bility to  the  degree  common  in  youth  can  not  under 
any  circumstances  be  expected  to  have  a  normal  intel- 
lectual and  moral  development ;  for  it  is  owing  to  as- 
tonishment, ultimately,  that  a  new  impression  of  sight 
or  sound,  and  in  less  degree  an  impression  of  touch, 


TEMPERAMENTS  IN  INFANCY.  23 

temperature,  smell  or  taste,  acts  very  strongly  on  the 
sense-mechanism  concerned.  The  sensation  brings  in 
its  train  unusually  keen  and  lively  feelings.  These 
feelings  are  manifested  in  the  case  of  astonishment  by 
fixed,  wide-open  eyes ;  at  a  later  period,  by  raising  of 
the  eyebrows  in  addition ;  often  the  forehead  is  wrin- 
kled, the  mouth  opened,  the  whole  body  motionless,  the 
arms  retaining  exactly  the  same  position  as  before  the 
impression  was  made,  while  there  is  a  silence  that 
would  be  called  "  speechlessness  "  if  the  infant  were 
capable  of  speech.  When  this  image  of  astonishment 
is  exhibited  by  a  child  at  insignificant  things — phe- 
nomena long  since  become  indifferent  to  grown  people 
— the  parents  have  reason  to  be  glad  of  it. 

This  phase  of  psychogenesis  ought  to  be  reached  in 
the  second  quarter  of  the  first  year,  or  at  latest  toward 
the  end  of  that  period.  If  it  comes  much  later,  or  not 
at  all,  then  the  after  development  of  the  intellect  must 
also  be  abnormal,  because  all  our  knowledge  is  matured 
through  our  sense-impressions;  and  when  these  are 
deficient,  there  is  an  irremediable  lack),  just  as  when 
the  excitability  of  the  nerves  of  sense  is  inferior  or 
wanting. 

Fear,  too,  is  one  of  the  mightiest  teachers  during 
childhood ;  and  if  it  were  not  too  often  called  forth  by 
ignorant  nurses  and  maids  needlessly  and  unwarrant- 
ably, just  for  entertainment,  with  no  educational  pur- 
pose— by  the  pretense  of  "  the  black  man,"  by  shutting 


24:       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

up  in  a  dark  room,  by  sudden  seizure  from  behind, 
and  the  like— assuredly  a  much  larger  proportion  of 
people,  and  particularly  of  women,  would  be  less  easily 
thrown  into  a  fright  at  trifling  occurrences  than  is  the 
case  now.  A  distinction  is  to  be  made  between  inher- 
ited and  acquired  fear,  both  of  which  manifest  them- 
selves in  the  child  by  the  same  external  signs.  For 
when  an  invincible  antipathy  to  certain  animals — e.  g., 
pigs,  cats,  dogs,  and  even  doves — shows  itself  at  the 
first  sight  of  them,  in  the  fourth  month  of  life,  in  in- 
dividual children,  it  is  not  easy  to  show  how  this  fear 
can  have  been  acquired.  The  child  does  not  know 
that  there  is  danger,  and  yet  he  is  afraid^  A  little 
later  he  will  tremble,  grow  pale,  draw  down  the  cor- 
ners of  his  mouth  decidedly,  cower,  cry  out,  or  make 
movements  for  flight,  at  seeing  and  hearing  a  steam 
engine,  the  shrill  whistle  of  which  is  of  itself  enough 
to  set  many  an  infant  into  a  fit  of  screaming.  This 
effect  can  not  be  the  result  of  education  any  more  than 
can  the  fear  of  falling  the  first  time  a  child  tries  to 
walk  alone,  or  the  dread  of  the  ocean — a  fear  that  per- 
sists even  when  the  sea  is  smooth  and  almost  noiseless, 
at  the  ebb. 

Timid  and  affected  mothers  have  timid  and  affected 
children,  for  the  reason  that  their  own  behavior,  their 
frequent  startings,  outcries,  flights,  are  imitated.  In 
like  manner  courageous  mothers  have  courageous  chil- 
dren, because  by  their  own  conduct  they  exert  an  edu- 


TEMPERAMENTS  IN  INFANCY.  25 

cational  influence ;  and  here,  as  in  all  departments  of 
education,  to  be  an  example  is  of  far  more  worth  than 
to  give  good  instruction  or  to  reward  and  punish.  But 
there  are  children  who  of  themselves,  apart  from  any 
influence,  good  or  bad,  of  those  nearest  to  them,  are 
easily  frightened ;  and  there  are  others  who  are  hard 
to  frighten.  Timidity  depends  on  temperament,  and 
temperament,  through  the  excitability  of  the  nerves  of 
sense  and  the  capacity  of  the  central  nervous  organs, 
determines  substantially  whether  the  impressions  re- 
ceived by  the  organs  of  sense  shall  persist  for  a  long 
or  a  short  time,  with  intensity  or  with  less  tenacity. 

These  varieties  of  aptitude  and  of  organic  memory 
are  the  basis  of  the  distinction  I  have  elsewhere  dis- 
cussed in  detail  (in  my  university  lectures)  between 
the  four  temperaments — a  distinction  that  was  made 
nearly  two  thousand  years  ago — the  different  tempera- 
ments being  classed  as  the  sanguine,  the  choleric,  the 
melancholy,  and  the  phlegmatic.  These  may  be  dis- 
cerned very  early  in  the  great  majority  of  children — 
in  the  second  quarter  of  the  first  year,  beyond  a  doubt. 
But  external  circumstances  may  have  much  more  ef- 
fect than  at  a  later  period  in  the  adult  in  causing  the 
amalgamation,  as  it  were,  of  one  of  these  temperaments 
with  another,  go  that  the  one  may,  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  make  good  what  is  lacking  in  the  other ;  and 
for  this  reason  the  ultimate  character  of  the  mature 
man  can  never  be  predicted  from  the  behavior  of  the 


26       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

child  in  the  first  three  years.  "  Just  as  the  twig  is 
bent  the  tree's  inclined,"  is  doubtless  true,  but  what 
we  are  concerned  with  here  is  the  period  before  the 
bending.  And  it  is  of  practical  importance  in  this 
matter  to  know  that  the  four  temperaments,  which 
have  for  a  long  time  been  accepted  without  any  one's 
being  able  to  say  why,  may  be  distinguished  in  ad- 
vance quite  naturally  on  physiological  grounds.  In 
two  of  them  the  excitability,  and  therefore  the  sensi- 
tiveness to  impressions  of  various  kinds,  is  great ;  in 
two  of  them  it  is  small.  The  first  is  the  case  with  the 
choleric  and  the  sanguine,  the  second  with  the  mel- 
ancholy and  the  phlegmatic.  Again,  the  duration  of 
the  after-effect  of  every  impression,  the  tenacity  with 
which  the  memory-image  is  retained,  is,  in  the  melan- 
choly and  the  choleric,  surprising,  the  organic  change 
in  the  brain  accompanying  it  being  probably  consider- 
able ;  in  the  other  two,  the  sanguine  and  the  phleg- 
matic, this  effect  is  slight.  Thus  we  get  the  following 
classification,  which  is  especially  to  be  borne  in  mind 
in  our  judgment  of  the  child  no  less  than  in  our  judg- 
ment of  the  growing  youth,  in  connection  with  educa- 
tion, and  particularly  in  the  forming  of  character  and 
in  instruction,  both  physical  and  intellectual  : 

Excitability.  After-effect. 

Sanguine Great.  Small. 

Phlegmatic Small.  Small. 

Choleric Great.  Great. 

Melancholy Small.  Great. 


TEMPERAMENTS  IN  INFANCY.  27 

Considering  the  numerous  transitions  from  one 
temperament  to  another,  the  connection  between  them 
all,  and  the  difficulty  we  find,  in  spite  of  the  perfection 
attained  in  the  art  of  physiological  experimentation  by 
means  of  measure  and  number,  in  maintaining  dis- 
tinctions in  quantity  and  degree,  this  view  can  not,  of 
course,  as  yet  be  established  physiologically  in  its  de- 
tails. I  have  rather  come  to  it  through  observation  of 
men  in  the  world  and  of  little  children  in  the  nursery. 
It  is  at  least  of  value  in  judging  of  the  child's  naturel, 
and  of  his  intellectual  development  as  far  as  that  can 
be  foreseen. 

An  uncommonly  lively  child,  who  turns  his  head 
at  every  noise,  moves  his  eyes  restlessly,  directs  his  at- 
tention now  hither,  now  thither,  cries  a  good  deal,  and 
when  he  learns  to  walk  does  not  stay  in  any  one  place 
more  than  a  few  moments — a  child,  i.  e.,  of  decidedly 
sanguine  temperament — ought  to  be  guarded  care- 
fully against  unnecessary  stimulation.  He  should  be 
accustomed  to  moderate  light  and  to  stillness,  and 
from  the  beginning  should  not  be  noticed  by  members 
of  his  family,  and  by  other  children,  as  much  as  his 
opposite,  the  child  that  is  slow,  that  takes  little  or  no 
notice  of  his  surroundings,  but  sleeps  much  and  un- 
interruptedly for  a  long  time — the  phlegmatic  child. 
What  would,  in  the  case  of  the  former  of  these  chil- 
dren, lead  to  an  aggravation  of  his  mobility,  to  convul- 
sions and  other  disturbances  of  development,  is  just 


28       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

the  thing  needed  in  the  case  of  the  latter,  viz.,  fre- 
quent change  in  his  plays,  stimulation  by  means  of 
light  and  sound,  much  cold  air  and  cold  water,  in 
order  that  his  natural  heaviness  may  be  to  some  extent 
combated. 

Now,  as  to  the  choleric  child.  How  important  it 
is  for  the  mother  to  know  that  a  boy  who,  when  very 
young,  without  sufficient  cause  goes  into  violent  fits  of 
passion,  in  which  he  strikes  out  with  arms  and  legs  or 
stretches  himself  out  rigid  and  stubbornly  inflexible, 
frightens  his  mother  by  a  congestion  that  announces 
itself  with  an  alarming  flush  of  the  skin  of  the  whole 
scalp,  ought  not  to  be  treated  with  violence  or  blows ! 
Such  a  child  in  the  moment  of  extreme  rage  should  be 
left  alone,  and  be  observed,  without  his  knowledge, 
from  a  neighboring  room.  When  a  child  in  such  a 
state  of  excitement  gives  notice  of  the  coming  on  of 
one  of  his  "  spells,"  by  shutting  his  eyes  firmly, "  squar- 
ing "  his  mouth  and  uttering  most  disagreeable  screams, 
the  best  thing  is  to  leave  him  at  once  to  himself  upon 
a  blanket  on  the  floor  of  the  room.  Often  he  will  be- 
come quiet  in  a  surprisingly  short  time  in  the  absence 
of  other  persons,  whereas  all  well-intended  attempts  at 
consolation  are  likely  to  call  forth  a  fresh  outbreak  of 
passion.  I  am  acquainted  with  many  cases  of  such 
screaming  children  of  genuine  choleric  temperament, 
who  by  means  of  rational  training  have  been  entirely 
cured  of  this  fault. 


TEMPERAMENTS  IN  INFANCY.  29 

Sometimes,  unfortunately,  children  by  no  means 
disposed  to  such  abnormal  freaks  are  transformed  for 
the  worse  by  inexcusable  fault  on  the  part  of  the 
members  of  the  family  or  of  nurses.  For  example,  a 
child  quietly  sleeping  is  waked  in  order  to  be  fed ;  or 
is  allowed  to  cry  uninterruptedly  in  the  night  without 
being  once  looked  after  to  find  out  what  is  the  mat- 
ter with  him ;  or  he  is  swathed  too  tight.  Not  only 
is  the  physical  development  disturbed  considerably 
by  such  preposterous  actions,  but  the  character,  too, 
which  unfolds  itself  very  early,  is  spoiled.  The  wak- 
ing of  young  children,  in  particular,  I  regard  as  ex- 
traordinarily harmful  in  both  these  directions.  Chil- 
dren wake  after  proper  rest,  on  account  of  hunger, 
and  almost  invariably  give  notice  of  the  fact  by  their 
voice,  no  matter  what  temperament  they  are  of. 

It  would  not  be  difficult  to  make  out  a  full  list  of 
simple  principles  of  training  for  the  first  year  of  life, 
upon  the  basis  of  the  varieties  of  temperament  as  here 
indicated ;  but  I  have  to  pursue  the  development  of 
the  child's  mind  in  another  direction,  and  therefore 
must  dismiss  this  matter  here. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   FIRST   PERCEPTIONS   AND    IDEAS. 

IN  contrast  with  the  first  period  of  life,  there  ap- 
pears in  the  child,  after  some  months,  a  keen  dis- 
crimination of  many  kinds  of  contact;  of  different 
temperatures,  and  (by  means  of  the  muscular  sense) 
of  various  degrees  of  pressure.  The  warm  and  wet, 
the  damp  and  cool,  the  dry  and  warm,  the  dry  and 
cold,  the  rough  and  hard,  the  soft  and  smooth,  the 
heavy  and  the  light — these  and  other  distinctions  are 
now  felt,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  child's  actions  when 
he  avoids  or  seeks  things,  and  in  his  countenance,  the 
expression  of  which  can  not  be  described,  and  is 
hardly  to  be  reproduced  in  picture. 

Psychologically  considered,  this  discrimination  in 
the  sense-impressions  is  the  more  important,  in  that  it 
is  attained  at  a  time  when  as  yet  the  child  gives  no 
hint  whatever  in  the  direction  of  naming  his  feelings 
in  words  of  articulate  speech.  The  intellect  has  al- 
ready developed  to  some  extent  without  any  regard 
to  words  at  all,  even  to  words  heard  from  other  per- 


THE  FIRST  PERCEPTIONS  AND  IDEAS.         31 

sons ;  for  deaf  and  dumb  children  do  not  differ  essen- 
tially in  this  respect  from  normal  children  in  the  first 
months.  But  that  the  intellect  is  really  active  in  the 
discrimination  of  all  these  sense-impressions  is. proved 
by  the  ordering  or  arranging  of  them  in  space  and 
time. 

The  first  act  of  the  human  intellect  consists  in  the 
ordering  of  the  impressions  made  upon  the  organs  of 
sense — upon  the  skin  first,  and  then  upon  the  eye. 
When  the  simultaneous  impressions  in  all  depart- 
ments of  sense,  which  form  the  raw  material  of  all 
experience,  are  arranged  with  regard  to  their  relations 
to  one  another — i.  e.,  their  differences,  along  with 
complete  likeness  in  kind  and  degree — we  call  the  re- 
sult space.  The  intuition  of  space  is  so  firmly  grown 
into  our  brain  that  we  are  quite  unable  ever  to  get 
rid  of  it  after  this  ordering  activity  has  once  begun. 
Even  in  the  most  profound  derangement  of  mind  this 
function  persists.  Two  impressions  of  light,  equally 
bright,  of  the  same  color,  just  alike  in  form  and  re- 
ceived at  the  same  time,  are  distinguished  in  all  cases 
only  by  their  locality.  Things  show  themselves  to  us 
ever  beside  one  another,  above  one  another,  or  behind 
one  another.  ~No  fourth  location  exists,  except  in 
thought.  We  always  find  a  difference  in  our  own 
body  between  left  and  right,  above  and  below,  before 
and  behind ;  and  even  in  the  sphere,  on  the  surface  of 
which  all  points  are  alike,  we  are  constrained,  how- 


32       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE   CHILD. 

ever  often  we  turn  it,  to  recognize  just  these  three 
dimensions  and  these  three  only,  by  virtue  of  our 
inherited  organization. 

These  relations  of  space  the  child  learns — learns 
through  his  own  experience  exclusively,  through  fail- 
ures in  seizing  objects,  through  errors  of  vision, 
through  hits,  falls,  movements  of  the  eyes  and  head, 
and  through  the  perception  that  objects  become 
brighter  or  darker  as  they  are  near  or  distant.  In  this 
way,  and  by  degrees  always,  does  the  great  difference 
become  plain  between  a  surface  and  a  solid  body  that 
is  too  far  off  for  him  to  touch.  The  question,  so  much 
mooted  by  philosophers  for  two  centuries,  put  by 
Molyneux  to  Locke — whether  a  child  born  blind,  but 
receiving  sight  by  means  of  a  surgical  operation,  would 
be  able  at  once  to  distinguish  a  sphere  from  a  cube  by 
the  eye  alojie — was  indeed  correctly  answered  in  the 
negative,  but  not  on  satisfactory  grounds.  It  was  as- 
sumed that  the  difference  between  these  objects  would 
be  learned,  like  the  difference  between  a  flat  plate  and 
a  globe,  solely  through  the  sense  of  touch ;  and  the  in- 
ference was  made  that  in  looking  at  different  forms 
the  perception  of  differences  of  form  comes  only 
through  the  recollection  of  the  sensations  of  touch. 
Correct  as  the  assumption  was,  the  inference  is  not 
satisfactory ;  for  a  great  many  forms  are  cognized  as 
different  by  the  eye  alone,  where  there  is  no  possi- 
bility of  employing  the  sense  of  touch.  The  rainbow 


THE  FIRST  PERCEPTIONS  AND  IDEAS.         33 

can  not  be  touched,  nor  the  moon,  yet  they  appear 
round  to  the  child  very  early — the  first  flat,  the  sec- 
ond spherical  in  the  telescope ;  and  to  assume  that 
both  kinds  of  roundness  are  possible  for  him  only 
through  the  remembrance  of  round  things  touched,  as 
balls,  must  be  called  far-fetched,  at  least.  As  chil- 
dren born  blind  and  never  acquiring  sight  learn  to 
distinguish  differences  in  the  form  of  bodies,  so  chil- 
dren with  normal  vision  can  equally  well  perceive 
the  inaccessible  heavenly  bodies,  and  far-distant  ob- 
jects on  the  earth,  as  differing  in  form,  merely  by 
the  sense  of  sight  and  the  practice  that  goes  with  it. 

The  retina  of  the  eye  is  a  skin,  too,  and  of  a  sort 
in  which  the  nerve-endings  are  much  more  closely 
crowded  together  than  in  the  ordinary  skin.  Al- 
though objects  do  not  touch  this  visual  skin,  it  comes 
in  contact  with  the  vibrations  of  ether  that  go  out 
from  them,  which  we  call  rays  of  light  merely  because 
they  produce  the  sensation  of  light.  How  nearly  re- 
lated sight  and  touch  must  be  in  the  child's  mind  is 
manifested  in  this,  that  little  children,  at  the  time 
when  they  are  learning  to  seize  objects,  often  carry 
new  ones,  grasped  for  the  first  time,  not  to  the  mouth, 
but,  strangely  enough,  to  the  eyes,  as  if  they  wanted 
to  put  the  things  into  the  eyes,  or  into  one  eye. 
Through  the  combination,  then,  of  tactile  and  visual 
impressions,  as  well  as  through  the  separation  of  these 
from  each  other,  the  space-intuition  is  acquired, 


34:      DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

slowly,  gradually,  as  little  by  little  the  fact  becomes 
manifest  that  for  all  the  senses  it  is  one  and  the  same 
space  in  which  the  impressions  are  co-ordinated. 

What  the  chicken  just  out  of  the  shell  can  do  dex- 
terously— viz.  pick  up  a  grain  of  corn,  seeing  it  at 
once  in  its  right  location — this  the  child  must  take 
several  months  to  learn.  With  the  animal,  as  soon  as 
it  comes  into  the  world  a  completely  developed  nervous 
mechanism  begins  to  act.  In  the  human  being  the 
mechanism  is  not  yet  complete,  but  requires  impres- 
sions from  without  that  it  may  be  perfected.  Thus 
we  see  that  the  two  contending  parties  of  nativists 
and  empiricists — the  first  regarding  all  space-intui- 
tions as  innate,  the  second  maintaining  that  these  are 
acquired  by  experience — are  both  in  the  right.  For 
in  the  creature  that  sees  well  from  the  start  but  can 
not  learn  to  see  much  better  in  later  life,  the  nervous 
visual  apparatus  is  on  hand,  innate ;  on  the  contrary, 
in  the  being  that  is  learning  for  years  to  see  better 
and  better,  this  apparatus  is  at  birth  incomplete,  not 
ready  made,  exists  in  part,  as  a  potentiality  simply, 
but  is  extremely  plastic,  and  is  in  fact  less  the  periph- 
eral eye  than  it  is  the  cerebral  tract  belonging  to  that 
— the  later  visual  sphere,  or  area,  where  the  retinal 
images  are  interpreted  and  the  elements  of  the  future 
intuition  of  space  are  collected  together.  This  por- 
tion of  the  cerebrum,  which  the  physiologist  Hermann 
Munk,  of  Berlin,  first  understood  in  its  true  signifi- 


THE  FIRST   PERCEPTIONS  AND  IDEAS.         35 

cance,  after  years  of  experimenting  upon  animals — 
this  tract,  the  destruction  of  which  produces  blindness, 
though  the  eyes  may  be  uninjured,  is  not  developed 
in  the  newly  born  human  being  as  it  is  in  the  chick- 
en. The  newborn  child  is  mind-blind — I  might  say 
"  space-blind."  He  has  a  sensation  of  light,  but  he 
can  not  see,  can  not  perceive  anything  in  space. 

The  ear  contributes  very  little  to  the  development 
of  the  space-intuition ;  it  is  the  organ  of  the  time- 
sense.  It  discriminates  with  marvelous  accuracy, 
when  practiced,  to  the  two  thousandth  of  a  second  in 
tones.  But  in  effect  all  the  organs  of  sense  are  organs 
of  time,  only  that  they  are  less  perfect  ones.  Two 
sensations  belonging  to  different  departments  of  sense 
can  never  come  into  consciousness  at  exactly  the  same 
time.  Never  simultaneously,  but  only  successively, 
can  two  impressions  on  precisely  the  same  place  in  a 
sentient  surface  be  perceived  as  such.  Two  stars 
represented  at  once  on  one  retinal  element  appear  as 
a  single  star,  even  if  they  are  millions  of  miles  apart ; 
two  simultaneous  needle-pricks  on  the  same  spot  of 
the  skin  appear  as  one  prick ;  and  so  of  all  the  senses. 
But  if  two  equally  original,  simple,  pure  sensations — 
two  lights,  two  tones,  two  pricks,  in  one  and  the  same 
place — are  apprehended  as  twofold,  then  the  child 
apprehends  one  of  them  after  the  other,  'before  a  third, 
in  the  place  where  the  impression  is  made,  be  it  the 
surface  of  the  skin  or  the  field  of  vision,  or  the  field 


36       DEVELOPMENT  OP  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

of  audition — i.  e.,  the  difference  between  them  is  time. 
But  when  this  takes  place  the  child  has  had  not 
merely  a  sensation  but  a  perception.  The  very  young 
child  'has  no  time-sense.  This  begins  to  develop 
with  his  first  perception.  Perception  differs  from 
sensation  essentially  in  the  accession  of  the  spatial 
and  the  temporal.  "  I  perceive  something,"  a  thing, 
an  occurrence,  means,  strictly  speaking,  "I  have  co- 
ordinated a  certain  sensation,  sharply,  clearly,  per- 
fectly defined  from  every  other,  with  reference  to 
space  and  time."  The  place  of  a  luminous  point, 
the  direction  of  a  line,  the  extension  of  a  surface,  or 
of  a  body  that  the  child  distinguishes  from  a  mere 
surface  by  feeling  of  it,  the  changing  of  the  place  of 
a  point,  of  a  line,  of  a  surface,  or  a  body — in  a  word, 
motion — all  these  results  of  the  co-ordinating  activity 
of  intellect  make  out  of  sensation  a  constituent  part 
of  higher  cerebral  activity  which  necessitates  the  de- 
velopment of  mind. 

But  with  bare  perception  of  the  things  that  pre- 
sent themselves  continually  about  us,  and  to  us,  and 
in  us — in  such  variety  and  abundance  as  not  to  be 
mastered — the  chief  step  in  knowledge  is  not  yet 
taken.  And  although  the  child  in  his  first  months 
in  regard  to  the  most  of  his  sense-impressions  does 
not  go  beyond  mere  perceiving,  any  more  than  does 
the  brute,  yet  in  the  case  of  some  of  his  impressions 
he  is  very  early  led  to  the  further  step,  necessary  to 


THE  FIRST  PERCEPTIONS  AND  IDEAS.        37 

all  higher  intellectual  development,  which  first  makes 
the  perceptions  available  for  thought,  the  highest 
function.  This  step  is  the  search  for  the  cause  of 
what  is  perceived.  For  example,  after  a  green  oval 
surface  has  been  seen  on  the  left,  above,  in  the  field 
of  vision  and  at  a  certain  moment — i.  e.,  has  been 
perceived — then  little  by  little  appears  the  higher 
function  of  the  brain,  through  which  the  leaf  of  a  tree 
is  recognized  as  the  cause  of  this  visual  perception. 
Now  the  perception  becomes  an  idea.  A  sensation 
defined  as  to  time  and  space — i.  e.,  a  perception 
which  becomes  through  the  accession  of  the  cause 
an  object  of  knowledge — we  call  a  representation,  or 
an  idea,  or  a  thought.  Ideas  are  the  exclusive  con- 
tents of  the  whole  higher  intellectual  life.  The 
combination  and  separation  of  them  is  the  work  of 
thought ;  the  origination  of  them  is  the  product  of 
experience  and  hereditary  endowment,  and  of  the 
imagination  that  is  dependent  on  both  ;  the  destruc- 
tion of  them  is  the  consequence  of  failing  memory. 

"  I  have  an  idea  of  something."  This  sentence 
denotes  the  act  of  assigning  a  cause  for  my  percep- 
tion, no  matter  whether  this  cause  is  demonstrable  or 
remains  a  pure  product  of  the  imagination.  The 
fact  that  an  idea  is  suggested  again  and  again  by 
experience  is  not  a  reason  for  its  being  correct,  and 
no  province  of  observation  is  more  instructive  in  this 
respect  than  the  very  one  that  comprises  the  mental 


38       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

activity  of  the  child,  because  here  we  find  more  easily 
and  more  frequently  than  elsewhere  in  human  life 
the  errors  made  in  the  search  for  the  cause.  A  num- 
ber of  examples  of  this  have  been  given  by  me  in  my 
book  on  "  The  Mind  of  the  Child  " ;  and  I  will  here 
simply  remind  the  reader  of  the  well-known  trick 
practiced  by  mothers  and  nurses,  of  blowing  with  the 
breath  upon  the  place  where  a  child  has  hurt  him- 
self. The  pain  passes  off,  and  the  child,  who  regards 
the  blowing  as  the  cause  of  the  betterment,  will  after- 
ward blow  even  when  the  place  where  he  has  been 
hit  is  the  back  of  the  head,  where  the  current  of  air 
can  not  possibly  reach.  That  the  pain  ceases  in  both 
cases  is  purely  the  consequence  of  the  suggestion  that 
it  is  gone.  On  this  is  based  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant principles  of  education,  one  that  concerns  the 
control  of  the  child's  ideas.  I  like  to  call  it  the 
"  Principle  of  Diverting  the  Attention." 

This  principle,  highly  important  in  all  mental  de- 
velopment, is  in  the  time  of  greatest  sensibility,  in 
earliest  youth,  decisive  in  its  application.  For  in  the 
bright  mirror  of  the  child's  mind  good  and  bad 
images  are  certainly  produced  easily  by  the  mother ; 
and  although  both  kinds  are  partially  obliterated  in 
the  course  of  further  development,  yet  they  persist  for 
a  longer  or  shorter  time,  according  to  the  strength  of 
the  suggestions  of  the  separate  ideas  implanted  or  co- 
ordinated, and  according  to  the  power  of  memory. 


THE  FIRST  PERCEPTIONS  AND  IDEAS.        39 

"  Suggestion  "  is  not  quite  the  same  thing  as  inoc- 
ulation or  persuasion ;  these  words  give  the  meaning 
only  partially.  The  special  characteristic  of  the  sug- 
gestive method  is  not  the  persistent  introducing  or  im- 
pressing of  a  certain  train  of  thought  alone,  but  above 
all  the  associating  firmly  with  this  of  an  occasion  for 
doing  or  not  doing  some  specific  thing.  It  has  been 
spoken  of  in  detail  by  me  on  other  occasions,  because 
suggestions  play  a  great  part  elsewhere  also,  and  their 
chief  importance  is  yet  to  appear,  particularly  in  the 
practice  of  medicine.  We  are  at  present  concerned 
with  the  determining  influence  of  the  suggestive  man- 
agement of  the  child  in  the  first  period  of  life. 

It  is,  to  be  sure,  impossible  in  the  intellectual  de- 
velopment of  a  child,  even  if  one  were  to  try  by  means 
of  punishment,  to  do  away  with  the  three  previously 
designated  elements — time,  space,  cause — or  even  to 
alter  them  by  persuasion ;  but  it  is  very  easy  to  connect 
wrong  names  with  them,  so  as  to  make  confusion.  If 
any  one  were  disposed,  for  example,  to  exchange  the 
names  of  the  points  of  compass  and  to  teach  the  child 
that  east  is  west,  the  child  would  still  learn  to  point  out 
correctly  the  quarter  of  the  heavens  in  which  the  sun 
rises,  but  he  would  name  it  wrong.  If  such  senseless 
attempts  were  continued,  he  would  become  uncertain, 
not  so  much  in  the  use  of  his  intellect  as  in  the  use  of 
his  memory  in  the  selection  of  words  and  signs.  It  is 
much  the  same  in  the  domain?  of  morals.  If  from  the 


40       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

beginning  false  ideas  as  to  mine  and  thine,  the  per- 
mitted and  the  forbidden — i.  e.,  right  and  wrong- — are 
given  to  the  child,  as  is  unhappily  the  case  too  often, 
through  ignorance,  then  his  moral  ideas  become  waver- 
ing. And  it  is  frequently  found  to  be  no  longer  possible, 
in  later  life,  to  repair  the  damage  completely,  because  a 
strict  self-education  can  not  be  attained  without  previ- 
ous education  through  others.  For  this  reason  I  have 
always  lamented  that  in  cultivated  families  the  chil- 
dren should  be  left  much  alone  with  uneducated 
nurses,  maids,  bonnes,  unless  the  educated  parents  oc- 
cupy themselves  with  the  child  to  the  same  or  a  greater 
degree  in  order  to  furnish  the  requisite  counterpoise. 
The  fathers  have  other  claims  upon  them ;  the  mothers 
are  in  too  many  cases  hindered  by  so-called  "duties" 
of  society,  or  by  needless  journeys. 

When  a  child  grows  up  from  the  beginning  under 
the  influence  of  the  suggestions  of  cultivated  people, 
he  must  take  with  him,  into  the  period  in  which  the 
nursery  is  left  behind  forever,  a  considerably  less 
number  of  naughty  ways  and  a  great  many  more 
excellences.  He  will  then,  of  course,  be  able  to  offer 
less  resistance  to  the  later  endeavors  of  his  trainers 
and  teachers  than  if  these  naughty  ways  had  first 
to  be  unlearned,  and  these  excellences,  such  as  obedi- 
ence, had  to  be  bred  in  him  afterward.  The  greatest 
defect  in  our  European  education  at  the  close  of  the 
nineteenth  century  consists  in  this :  that  in  the  first 


THE  FIRST  PERCEPTIONS  AND  IDEAS.        41 

period  of  the  life  of  the  young  there  is  far  too  little 
physiological  training,  and  at  a  later  period  far  too 
much  unphysiological  instruction.  And  yet  it  would 
be  possible,  by  means  of  an  extended  and  systematic 
use  of  the  principle  of  diverting  the  attention  through 
suggestions  without  words,  to  prepare,  even  in  the 
period  from  the  end  of  the  third  to  the  beginning  of 
the  tenth  month,  for  the  subsequent  education  through 
words,  so  as  to  give  a  prospect  of  permanent  results. 
To  do  this  we  must  carefully  and  perseveringly  repeat, 
at  fitting  times,  those  suggestions  that  are  helpful 
toward  harmonious  development.  On  the  other  hand, 
unphysiological  means  of  quieting  and  of  amusing  are 
to  be  strictly  forbidden.  For  instance,  the  inexcusable 
violent  rocking  in  the  cradle  and  baby- carriage,  which 
puts  the  babe  in^to  a  dazed  condition,  in  order  that  he 
may  not  trouble  those  that  have  the  care  of  him,  is 
extremely  injurious.  The  brain  is  slung  this  way  and 
that  in  the  skull,  which  is  still  open  at  the  top ;  yet  if 
a  grown  person  were  to  be  tossed  about  in  his  bed  to 
quiet  him,  as  I  have  often  seen  children  rocked  in 
cradles  and  baby-carriages,  he  would  indignantly  re- 
sent such  rough  treatment.  This  is  not  the  place  for 
going  into  details  concerning  the  earliest  suggestions 
of  a  wholesome  sort,  such  as  occupying  the  attention 
of  the  child,  when  it  is  unoccupied  or  improperly 
occupied,  by  rubbing  with  a  warm,  dry,  soft,  smooth 
hand,  by  exercising  his  senses  little  by  little  without 


42       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

wearying  him  ;  and,  further  on,  by  kindly  but  decisive 
language,  by  looks  and  gesture  or  a  significant  glance. 
I  desire  now  simply  to  indicate  the  great  importance 
of  this  principle  of  education,  which  is  indeed  much 
employed  but  not  systematically  enough  in  general — 
the  diverting  of  the  attention  through  suggestions. 

Nowhere  does  it  recommend  itself  more  than  in 

§ 
the  play  of  children.     A  satisfactory  theory  of  play  is 

still  wanting,  and  yet  a  man  does  not  learn  through 
any  kind  of  instruction  or  study  in  later  life  anything 
like  so  much  as  the  child  learns  in  the  first  four 
years  of  his  careless  existence,  through  the  perceptions 
and  ideas  acquired  in  his  play.  What  seems  to  adults 
unworthy  of  the  slightest  attention  in  childish  play,  is 
to  the  child  himself  of  the  highest  significance,  be- 
cause it  has  the  charm  of  novelty.  A  piece  of  wood, 
strings,  nutshells,  utterly  worthless  things,  like  peb- 
bles, leaves,  or  the  contents  of  a  waste-paper  basket, 
acquire  a  great  value  through  the  extraordinarily  live- 
ly imagination  of  the  child,  which  transforms  bits  of 
paper  into  cups,  boats,  animals,  and  men ;  and  as  I 
have  previously  spoken  of  the  experimenting  of  little 
children  as  play,  I  may  now  mention  the  internal  re- 
semblance of  their  procedure  to  that  of  the  naturalist. 
When  the  great  Newton  was  asked  how  he  had 
ever  managed  to  make  the  extraordinary  discoveries 
with  which  he  astonished  the  world,  he  gave  the  an- 
swer, since  become  famous,  that  he  seemed  to  himself 


THE  FIRST  PERCEPTIONS  AND  IDEAS.        43 

to  have  been  only  like  a  child  who  had  been  playing 
on  the  seashore  and  had  had  the  luck  to  find  now  and 
then  a  smoother  pebble  or  a  prettier  shell  than  his 
playmates.  That  he  had  worked,  had  been  restlessly, 
intensely  active,  had  combined,  and  analyzed,  to  the 
great  neglect  of  his  health,  to  forgetfulness  of  his 
meals — of  this  he  said  nothing. 

We  easily  overlook  in  like  manner  the  great  intel- 
lectual strain  connected  with  the  early  play  of  chil- 
dren. How  much  there  is  of  combination — i.  e.,  of 
putting  together !  how  much  of  analyzing  or  taking 
to  pieces  of  tangible  things  !  how  much  of  construc- 
tion and  destruction !  how  much  investigation,  per- 
sistent penetration  accompanied  with  great  muscular 
effort,  into  the  interior  of  things  that  are  shut  up  ! 
The  passion  for  unveiling  the  veiled,  for  getting  at  the 
concealed,  for  finding  the  reason  why  things  hold  to- 
gether, the  cause  of  a  noise,  the  cause  of  an  effect  of 
light — in  a  word,  the  insatiable,  hereditary  appetite 
for  causality  in  man — this  it  is  which  finds  its  first 
satisfaction  in  childish  play.  Hence  corne  feelings  of 
pleasure,  and  the  removal  of  the  discomfort  occasioned 
by  ignorance.  But  what  else  is  it  that  urges  the 
thinker  and  investigator  in  all  departments  of  science 
to  his  self -forgetful  exertion  ?  If  the  pain  of  hunger 
and  thirst  has  at  all  times  induced  men  as. well  as 
beasts  to  get  rid  of  these  disagreeable  consequences  of 
the  lack  of  food,  so,  too,  at  all  times  the  discomfort  at- 


44       DEVELOPMENT   OP  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

tending  the  lack  of  knowledge — that  is  to  say,  the  long- 
ing to  still  the  unconquerable  hunger  for  causes — has 
urged  children  as  well  as  adults  to  a  higher,  an  intel- 
lectual labor.  The  fact  that  this  kind  of  labor  leads 
to  victory  in  the  struggle  for  existence  more  surely 
than  does  mere  physical  activity,  is  not  at  all  a  con- 
scious motive  in  the  matter. 

Play  makes  the  child  happy  :  work  makes  happy 
the  learned  man.  By  such  a  parallel  the  value  of  the 
activity  of  the  learned  man,  or  better,  of  the  investi- 
gator and  thinker,  the  discoverer  and  inventor,  is  not 
in  the  least  depreciated.  We  simply  put  a  higher  esti- 
mate on  the  activity  of  the  playing  child,  who  in  his 
primitive  fashion  likewise  discovers  and  invents.  He 
concentrates  his  attention  for  a  long  time  on  one  and 
the  same  object ;  he  can  busy  himself  for  half  an  hour 
with  a  rudely  carved  horse  :  on  the  other  hand,  he  de- 
sires change  of  activity,  after  which  he  will  go  back  to 
his  former  occupation,  which  no  longer  offers  him 
novelty,  but  remains  attractive  in  his  remembrance 
because  it  was  once  new.  As  early  as  the  first  half 
year,  the  nature^  th6  particular  nature  of  the  child, 
is  distinguished  by  such  individual  differences.  But 
what  a  schooling  the  child  goes  through  in  his  play, 
in  one  or  the  other  of  these  ways  of  acting,  has  not 
yet  been  by  any  means  investigated  psychologically. 
The  children  of  poor  families  help  themselves  out  by 
means  of  natural  products  that  cost  nothing,  and  of 


THE  FIRST  PERCEPTIONS  AND  IDEAS.        45 

the  ruined  toys  of  the  richer ;  while  the  children  of 
the  rich  have  at  their  disposal  the  most  costly  ma- 
chines, models,  whole  arsenals  of  weapons,  museums  of 
dolls  with  houses  to  live  in,  shops,  and  the  like,  in  a 
superfluity  that  is  not  justifiable.  The  toy-shop  profits 
by  it,  not  the  child.  The  child  that  grows  up  amid 
a  superfluous  abundance  of  playthings  easily  becomes 
blase  and  dissipated  ;  at  any  rate,  he  is  not  any  more 
happy  than  the  peasant  child  who  has  small  provision 
made  for  him,  but  lives  more  in  the  open  air.  The 
regulation  of  the  activity  of  the  brain  demands,  pre- 
cisely in  the  first  years,  a  careful  sifting  of  the  play- 
things to  be  put  into  the  child's  hands.  It  is  utterly 
absurd  to  choose  always  "  the  newest,"  and  it  is  better 
to  make  a  selection  of  a  few  playthings  or  games  that 
are  suited  to  the  understanding  of  the,  little  one,  than 
to  heap  up  indiscriminately  all  sorts  of  gay,  noisy, 
fragile,  and  speedily  useless  toys  on  big  tables  at 
Christmas  eve.  People  do  consider,  to  be  sure, 
whether  the  colors  of  the  bright  playthings  are  or 
are  not  poisonous ;  but  few  persons  reflect  whether 
the  mind  of  the  little  child  may  not  be  harmed  by 
overexertion  in  his  imitation  of  the  occupations  of 
adults.  The  child  should  not  be  distracted,  his  en- 
ergy should  not  be  dissipated ;  but  he  should  learn 
betimes  to  exercise  that  function  of  the  brain  which 
is  most  important  for  his  later  life,  that  of  directing 
his  attention,  of  his  own  motion,  persistently  toward 


46       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

a  definite  end.  This  he  learns  far  better  to  do  by 
means  of  thoroughgoing  occupation  with  two  plays 
than  by  the  rapid  alternation  of  many,  which  easily 
confuses  the  mind  and  spoils  by  satiety  the  naive  joy 
in  the  simple. 

There  is,  further,  in  regard  to  play,  the  neces- 
sity, even  in  the  case  of  the  smallest  child,  of  tak- 
ing into  consideration  the  influence  of  the  play  upon 
his  character.  Give  him  opportunity  to  find  out 
how  things  are,  for  himself,  without  too  much  cor- 
rection or  help,  through  searching  and  trying,  pull- 
ing and  turning  the  parts  of  his  miniature  world, 
and  we  give  him  opportunity  not  only  to  strengthen 
himself  in  a  measure  by  his  own  experience,  to  de- 
velop his  judgment  through  the  exercise  of  his  senses, 
but  also  to  obtain  a  personal  conviction  as  to  what 
is  true  and  what  is  not  true,  instead  of  echoing 
thoughtlessly  an  opinion  not  his  own.  Every  step 
he  takes  on  this  road  is  worth  far  more  to  him  than 
the  corrective  ideas  too  often  forced  upon  him  at  too  j 
early  an  age.  For  that  which  one  has  seen  for  himself 
usually  impresses  itself  more  deeply  than  what  one  \ 
learns  from  others ;  and  the  old  proverb,  "  Bought  wit 
is  best,"  has  special  force  in  application  to  the  play  of 
children.  A  mere  command  to  let  this  or  that  alone 
has  by  no  means  the  lasting  effect  of  a  single  experi- 
ence of  one's  own.  When  my  child  had  a  single  time 
put  his  finger  into  the  flame  of  the  candle  he  never 


THE  FIRST  PERCEPTIONS  AND  IDEAS.        47 

allowed  that  thing  to  happen  again ;  whereas,  before 
this,  the  taking  away  of  the  burning  candle  when  he 
was  attracted  by  it,  only  strengthened  his  desire  for  it. 

Children  ought  not  to  be  disturbed  when  they  are 
playing  harmlessly,  without  imperative  reasons.  They 
should  not  be  hindered  by  too  many  well-meant  good 
precepts  from  teaching  themselves  through  their  own 
perceptions.  This  self-teaching  not  only  enriches 
their  knowledge  and  augments  their  ability,  but  forms 
their  character,  particularly  when  there  are  several 
children  together  and  one  of  them  shows  himself  su- 
perior to  the  rest.  Still,  this  influence  of  play  does 
not  make  itself  felt  until  a  later  period,  which  I  will 
not  now  consider,  for  fear  of  being  too  diffuse. 

Before  that  period  arrives  several  important  phases 
of  the  development  of  the  child's  mind  are  to  appear. 
The  will  manifests  itself  after  the  first  clear  ideas  of 
movements  have  been  formed,  and  the  origin  of  that 
is  now  to  be  explained. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   OKIGItf   OF  THE   WILL. 

THE  human  will  is  the  greatest  power  on  earth.  It 
can  not,  indeed,  oppose  a  direct  check  to  the  rude 
force  of  Nature,  but  it  can  raise  itself  above  this,  and 
enable  man  to  be  prepared  for  everything,  so  that  he 
is  not  taken  at  unawares  by  sudden  misfortune,  death, 
or  destruction.  The  ancient  saying,  that  spirit  rules 
matter,  applies,  above  all,  to  the  power  of  the  human 
will,  which  removes  mountains,  joins  oceans,  over- 
comes distances  on  the  earth  -by  steam  and  iron,  and 
cosmic  distances  by  putting  itself  into  communication, 
by  means  of  a  ray  of  light,  with  the  most  remote 
heavenly  bodies.  It  is  man's  will,  too,  that  shapes  his- 
destiny.  His  career  in  life  is  determined  chiefly,  not 
by  accidental  circumstances,  by  environment  or  by 
education,  but  by  his  own  will.  Is  he  weak,  does  he 
submit  to  the  will  of  another,  then  he  lacks  self-deter- 
mination ;  then  he  should  not  be  surprised  if  he  does 
not  get  on  according  to  his  notion,  but  goes  like  the 
ball  that  is  thrown.  "  Man  makes  his  own  destiny," 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  WILL.  49 

and  "  Every  man  is  the  founder  of  his  own  fortune," 
only  through  his  own  will. 

Hence  it  is  of  fundamental  importance,  and  is 
profitable  in  a  practical  point  of  view,  for  every  one 
to  know  how  the  will  originates,  is  developed,  and  is 
perfected. 

A  greater  contrast  can  hardly  be  imagined  than 
exists  between  the  babe,  which  lies  absolutely  helpless, 
without  will  or  intellect,  and  the  man  into  whom  it  is 
transformed — the  man  in  the  prime  of  life,  in  the 
thick  of  the  contest  with  others,  growing  stronger  and 
stronger,  and  possessing  a  firmly  established  character. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  not  merely  a  possible  thing  to  ob- 
serve the  metamorphosis,  step  by  step — as  in  the  prov- 
ince of  morphology  we  have  accurately  traced  the 
changes  of  the  germ  slumbering  in  the  egg  up  to  the 
hatching  of  the  fowl,  which,  unlike  the  egg,  is  a  crea- 
ture having  motion  of  its  own — but  numerous  obser- 
vations have  actually  been  made  in  this  direction. 

In  order  to  discover  the  origin  of  will  in  the  child, 
we  must  first  of  all  know  how  will  may  be  recognized. 
Now,  the  only  sign  of  will  that  we  can  find  is  muscu- 
lar movement.  It  is  by  movements  solely  that  the 
child  can  manifest  his  will.  Yet  he  makes  lively 
movements  before  he  has  a  will ;  therefore  we  must 
inquire  into  the  difference  between  willed  movements 
and  those  first  movements  that  are  made  without  will. 
In  order  to  do  this  we  must  look  to  the  causes  of  the 


50       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

movements,  must  ascertain  which  among  the  great 
number  of  causes  are  absolutely  lacking  in  the  earliest 
period,  and  are  then  separate  from  all  others  because 
they  bring  after  them  the  voluntary  movements  of  the 
child.  Now,  the  causes  of  movements  that  lead  grad- 
ually to  the  development  of  the  child's  will  are  ideas, 

•  and  first  of  all  ideas  of  movements. 

It  is  therefore  very  important  to  make  an  accurate 
classification  of  all  the  movements  of  the  child,  in  or- 
der that  we  may  separate  from  the  others  those  aris- 
ing from  ideas.  A  division  merely  into  voluntary  and 
involuntary  movements  is  of  no  advantage,  for  the 
very  thing  to  be  found  out  is  how  the  voluntary  come 
forth  out  of  the  involuntary.  That  the  voluntary 
movements  exist  from  the  beginning  is  no  longer 
maintained  by  any  one.  The  newborn  child  has  ab- 
solutely no  will  any  more  than  the  unborn ;  yet,  like 
the  unborn  child,  it  makes  numerous  aimless,  pur- 

S^poseless,  irregular  movements.  Symmetrical  muscular 
contractions  of  a  remarkable  character  likewise  appear 
when  the  child  stretches  and  bends  its  arms  and  legs, 
when  it  sucks,  and  when  at  a  sudden  noise  it  winks 
its  eyes.  "Next  come  expressive  movements — pouting, 

^smiling,  wrinkling  the  forehead,  and  many  others. 
Not  until  much  later — viz.,  in  the  second  quarter  of 
the  first  year — begin  the  first  attempts  to  imitate  these 
movements,  the  attempts  being  preceded  by  imperfect 
efforts  to  respond  inarticulately  to  friendly  approaches ; 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   WILL.  51 

last  of  all  come  movements  that  may  be  regarded  as 
the  result  of  independent  deliberation. 

Where,  now,  in  this  long  succession  of  manifold 
movements  of  the  child,  which  are  developed  for  the 
most  part  imperceptibly,  is  the  inner,  common  thread 
that  binds  them  all  together?  Scientific  investiga- 
tion, ancient  or  modern,  does  not  explain  the  con- 
nection and  the  variations  of  all  the  movements  of  the 
child ;  these  resemble  very  closely  the  movements  of 
young  animals.  Yet  light  must  penetrate  the  dark 
labyrinth  if  we  only  hold  our  attention  firmly  upon 
the  direct  cause  of  each  separate  movement.  And 
small  as  are  the  results  thus  far,  in  a  chemical,  phys- 
ical, or  psychological  point  of  view,  still  it  is  certain 
that,  physiologically  considered,  all  the  causes  of  the 
child's  movements  are  either  external,  lying  outside 
the  body,  or  internal,  arising  within  the  body.  All 
human  movements  arise  either  from  external  stimulus 
or  internal ;  the  stimuli  are  either  hetero-kinetic  or 
auto-kinetic. 

The  remarkable — and  for  the  newborn  child  and 
animal  specially  characteristic — manifold,  convulsive, 
stretching  movements,  accompanied  by  spreading  oi 
the  toes  and  fingers,  commonly  witnessed  in  the  warm 
bath ;  the  frequently  slow  but  sometimes  rapid  bend- 
ings  of  the  limbs  in  a  warm  bed,  and  many  of  the 
numerous  grimaces  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
child's  life  delight  the  relatives,  but  on  the  child's 


52       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

part  are  utterly  devoid  of  purpose — these  can  have 
none  but  internal  causes.  Just  such  convulsive  move- 
ments of  the  limbs  are  made  by  the  marmot  awaking 
from  its  winter  sleep,  and  by  the  chicken  developing 
in  the  egg  that  is  being  brooded,  as  may  be  observed 
under  proper  illumination.  The  human  being  before 
his  entrance  into  the  world  is  in  the  condition  of  the 
animal  in  its  winter  sleep — birth  awakes  him.  The 
movements  made  during  the  long  repose  of  his  brain, 
at  unequal  intervals,  are  impulsive,  like  the  first  move- 
ments of  the  limbs  after  birth ;  and  these  it  is  out  of 
which  the  later  voluntary  movements  are  formed,  by 
slow  degrees  at  first,  and  through  a  process  continued 
for  months,  of  separation,  combination,  adaptation, 
and  co-ordination. 

But  other  building-stones  yet  are  brought  to  the 
erection  of  the  solid  structure  of  the  willed  movements. 
For  example,  when  strong  impressions  are  made  on 
the  child  through  the  senses,  he  makes  inherited  de- 
fensive movements,  in  which  the  brain  has  no  part. 
If  light  too  bright  reaches  his  eye,  the  pupil  at  once 
contracts,  as  I  have  already  said,  and  a  closing  of  the 
lid  takes  place  at  a  flash  of  light  or  at  a  loud  report. 
If  a  substance  of  too  bitter  taste,  like  rhubarb,  is  put 
upon  his  tongue,  he  makes  movements  of  retching ; 
and  on  being  dipped  into  cold  water,  he  draws  deep 
breaths  and  utters  cries.  Other  reflex  movements 
might  be  enumerated,  common  to  all  children  the 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  WILL.  53 

world  over — movements  subject  to  well-known  laws, 
and  occurring  with  machine-like  precision,  the  cause 
of  which  always  lies  outside  the  body.  The  reflex 
movement  follows  directly  upon  the  external  stimulus, 
and  in  a  uniform  manner.  And  not  until  the  stimu- 
lus is  too  powerful  are  general  convulsive  movements 
added  to  these.  Here  we  have  a  typical  example  of 
involuntary  movement.  The  reflexes  take  place  with- 
out the  participation  of  the  will,  even  in  the  adult 
human  being,  up  to  the  end  of  life ;  and  when  he 
wills  them  they  are  no  longer  reflexes.  The  best  actor 
is  not  able  to  make  voluntarily  a  reflex  movement  so 
quickly  and  accurately,  to  begin  and  end  it  with  such 
almost  infallible  precision,  as  the  child  that  as  yet 
knows  no  dissimulation. 

A  third  kind  of  movements  is  likewise  absolutely 
involuntary,  but  far  more  complicated  than  those  men- 
tioned. It  comprises  the  expressions  of  instinct.  In- 
stinct is  inherited  memory.  What. one's  ancestors  for 
an  inconceivable  series  of  generations  found  especially 
useful  and  valuable  for  the  preservation  of  themselves 
and  those  belonging  to  them,  they  preferred  :  so  that 
among  the  defensive  and  other  innate  reflexes  certain 
movements  were  more  easily  inherited  than  all  others, 
simply  because  they  occurred  far  more  frequently. 
The  instinctive  movements  are  also  distinguished  in 
many  cases  from  all  other  childish  movements  by  their 
complete  co-ordination  and  their  consecutive  charac- 


54       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

ter — one  might  almost  say,  by  their  logic.  The  most 
instructive  example  of  this  is  presented  in  the  act  of 
sucking,  which  is  by  no  means  purely  reflexive,  as  it 
is  frequently  declared  to  be.  It  is  a  movement  that  is 
made  only  when  the  child  is  in  a  particular  mood  ;  is 
not  made  when  his  appetite  is  satisfied,  sometimes  not 
if  he  is  fretful,  not  if  he  is  sick ;  and  it  is  the  most 
useful  movement  that  the  child  can  possibly  make. 
Choice,  however,  is  not  at  all  involved  in  it ;  children 
born  without  a  brain  suck  just  as  normal  children  do. 
I  have  myself  seen  this.  Meantime,  such  instinctive 
movements  are  of  the  greatest  importance  for  the  fu- 
ture development  of  the  will,  because  they  lead  early 
to  the  inhibition  of  reflexive  movements.  A  child 
actively  engaged  in  sucking  at  good  milk  does  not  ob- 
serve that  he  is  touched,  whereas  he  may  previously 
have  made  violent  defensive  movements  when  touched 
in  the  same  way.  When  a  strong  impulse  presses  to 
the  front,  weaker  impulses  can  no  longer  possess  the 
motor  influence  they  otherwise  have. 

This  principle  finds  confirmation  in  the  investiga- 
tion of  a  large  group  of  childish  movements — the 
imitative ;  for,  when  a  child  begins  to  imitate  what 
is  done  in  his  presence,  he  must  have  in  his  mind,  be- 
fore he  executes  the  movement  of  imitation,  a  more  or 
less  distinct  image  of  that  movement — i.  e.,  a  motor 
idea.  Accordingly,  the  cerebrum  must  take  an  active 
part,  and  must  be  free  from  other  ideas.  A  brainless 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  WILL.  55 

child  can  not  imitate  anything ;  neither  can  the  newly 
lorn,  because  his  cerebral  cortex  is  not  yet  developed. 
Some  deliberation,  however  short,  must  interpose : 
"  How  shall  this  movement  be  made  ? "  Therefore 
the  attempt  succeeds  only  when  other  motor  ideas  do 
not  mingle  themselves  in,  to  cause  disturbance.  But 
in  this  case  a  certain  degree  of  will  is  already  attained  ; 
a  separation  of  ideas  has  taken  place,  and  a  combina- 
tion of  the  motor  ideas  that  belong  together,  which  is 
required  for  the  excitation  and  contraction  of  just  the 
muscles  needed.  Finally,  there  must  be  prior  adapta- 
tion, with  the  first  successful  attempts  at  imitation, 
otherwise  the  act  seen  would  remain,  as  in  the  first 
months,  beyond  the  reach  of  imitation.  Hence,  in  the 
conjunction  and  competition  of  all  possible  movements, 
impulsive,  reflexive,  instinctive,  or  other,  the  first  suc- 
cessful imitative  movement  is  a  sign  that  at  length  an 
idea  prevails  as  the  product  of  deliberation.  Will  is 
here.  The  first  movements  imitated  by  the  infant 
with  manifest  purpose  are  usually  movements  of  ex- 
pression. 

From  this  very  brief  presentation  of  the  most  im-  I  / 
portant  elements  in  the  development  of  the  will,  it 
appears  that  will  depends  chiefly  on  ideas,  and  hence 
on  perceptions  that  are  understood,  and  which  on 
their  part  have  been  formed  out  of  sensations.  The 
impulsive  movements  and  the  reflexes  come  into  ex- 
istence without  antecedent  ideas;  so,  likewise,  the 


56       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

original  instinctive  movements  of  the  child ;  but  never 
the  first  imitations.  It  is  plain,  therefore,  how  extraor- 
dinarily important  it  is  for  the  earliest  education,  to 
allow  definite  sensations,  perceptions,  and  ideas  to  be 
experienced  by  the  child,  to  permit  him  to  practice 
definite  imitations,  and  to  keep  away  from  him  other 
ideas  that  are  unsuitable,  pernicious,  destructive,  first 
to  the  child  himself  and  afterward  to  his  kin.  On 
the  forming  of  the  will  depends  well-nigh  everything 
in  the  earliest  education ;  and  if  I  have  declared  that 
the  education  of  the  human  being  begins  in  the  first 
hour  of  his  existence,  it  was  in  this  sense  I  said  it. 
Will  is  not  at  that  time  present,  but  we  know  that  it 
is  one  day  to  be  present,  as  surely  as  we  know  that 
every  healthy  newborn  child  will  some  day  talk.  But 
the  will  does  not  grow  out  of  nothing.  Consequently, 
we  are  constrained,  in  the  interest  of  the  newborn 
human  being,  as  well  as  in  that  of  his  kindred,  to 
direct  the  will  while  it  is  in  the  germinal  state  into 
quite  definite  paths,  and  therefore  to  regulate  the  ex- 
L_ternal  impressions.  In  this  consists  the  principal 
problem  of  education  in  the  nursery ;  and  precisely  in 
this  is  the  greatest  failure  made,  because  women — 
with  whom,  in  Germany,  the  child  has  almost  ex- 
clusive intercourse  in  the  first  period  of  life — do  not 
themselves  possess  the  requisite  pedagogical  experi- 
ence and  knowledge.  How  in  detail  the  innate  re- 
flexive movements;  how  the  hereditary,  but  not  in- 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  WILL.  57 

nate,  instinctive  movements,  to  which,  e.  g.,  walking 
belongs ;  how  the  first  imitations,  together  with  the 
primitive,  always  innate,  animal-like,  impulsive,  pur- 
poseless stretchings  and  bendings,  work  together  in 
order  that  the  voluntary  movements  may  finally  come 
to  their  right  unfolding,  can  not  yet  be  exactly  told. 
But  we  have  at  least  found  the  way  that  leads  to  it. 
What  the  important  thing  is  in  directing  the  germi- 
nating will  of  the  child  without  breaking  it,  is  easy  to 
say  but  very  hard  to  carry  out.  The  young  trees  in 
the  nursery  must  be  bent,  not  snapped,  when  they  are 
hindered  by  external  influences  from  growing  straight ; 
and  no  service  is  done  the  little  child  when  from  the 
beginning  the  natural  unfolding  of  his  will  is  made 
difficult  by  unnecessarily  strict  prohibitions  and  com- 
mands, the  reason  of  which  he  is  wholly  incapable 
of  comprehending.  This  is  just  the  way  to  foster 
one  of  the  most  undesirable  qualities  of  character, 
viz.,  obstinacy.  When,  on  the  contrary,  in  the  very 
earliest  period,  the  educator  (or  rather  educatress, 
for  men  have  little  to  do  with  infants)  forbids  noth- 
ing without  a  sufficient  reason  and  gives  no  needless 
commands,  then  there  arise  in  the  child  more  motor 
ideas  that  do  not  come  into  contradiction  with  the 
forbidden  and  with  unpleasant  commands.  Thus  the 
child's  natural  disposition  comes  out  more  purely  in 
his  movements,  in  acts  and  even  little  deeds  of  hero- 
ism. And  that  in  the  present  age  of  miseducation 


58       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

it  is  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  not  to  train  so 
much,  but  instead  to   let   the    natural   development 
perfect  itself  in  a  manner  more  in  accordance  with 
physiology,  will  hardly  be  denied.     Physiological  edu- 
cation, however,  rests  chiefly  upon  taking  into  con- 
sideration   the   physical   substratum   of   all   intellec- 
tual activity,  the  central  nervous  system.     In  order 
to  be  able  to  direct  the  will,  one  must  control  the 
motor   ideas   of  the   child.      In    order    to   lessen  or 
abolish  the  tricks  of  training  that  hinder  the  natural 
development,  we  must  watch  not  only  the  child  but 
also  the  servants  that  have  to  do  with  him.      Such 
thoroughgoing,  absorbing  attention  to   the  child   is, 
however,  impossible  even  for  the  most  loving  mother 
who  has  other  duties  pressing  upon  her.      She  will 
therefore  be  obliged  to  limit  herself  to  controlling  the 
training  of  the  child  as  far  as  possible.     Everything 
that  obstructs  or  harms  the  cerebral  development — 
e.  g.,  too  long  playing  in  the  twilight,  violent  rock- 
ing, carrying  always  on  the  same  arm,  wholly  unsuit- 
able tight  swathing,  and  many  another  thing  impor- 
tant in  the  hygienic  point  of  view — she  must  forbid ; 
and  at  the  same  time  she  must  wean   herself  from 
convenient    but   too   far-going    indulgence.      Much, 
very  much,  here  depends  on  repose  and  on  self-con- 
trol, especially  in  her  relation  to  the  child,  and  on  un- 
varying justice,  mildness,  and  consistency,  even  while 
the  child  as  yet  understands  nothing  of  it.     An  ex- 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   WILL.  59 

haustive  exposition  of  these  precepts  is  not  in  place 
here,  but  it  is  necessary  to  allude  to  them ;  for  every 
attempt  to  direct  the  childish  will  into  the  right  ways 
remains  fruitless  unless  the  health  of  the  brain  re- 
mains unimpaired ;  unless,  therefore,  it  is  previously 
cared  for  with  the  greatest  attention.  Think  of  the 
difficulty,  which  may  mount  up  to  impossibility,  of 
training  a  sick  child  !  By  the  many  attentions  that 
are  shown  him  on  account  of  his  illness,  he  is  spoiled 
and  mistrained;  and  the  longer  these  continue,  so 
much  the  harder  it  proves  to  be,  at  a  later  period,  to 
escape  the  consequences  of  the  spoiling,  because  at 
that  time  his  will  is  no  longer  so  pliable.  While  the 
senses  and  the  brain  should  be  spared  in  their  ac- 
tivity, we  should  not  forget  the  need  of  the  use  and 
practice  of  both. 

It  is  only  in  the  beginning  that  the  will  is  easily 
directed ;  the  iron  can  be  forged  only  so  long  as  it 
is  warm  and  soft.  Pliable  as  the  will  of  the  child 
seems  at  the  beginning,  it  very  soon  becomes  hard 
enough  to  defy  the  blow  of  the  hammer  like  the  cold 
anvil.  True,  willing  is  nothing,  ultimately,  but  an 
extremely  peculiar  reciprocal  action  of  motor  ideas,  as 
I  have  tried  to  show :  but  it  may  alter  existing  move- 
ments, may  isolate  them  one  from  another,  combine 
them  for  an  act,  repeat,  strengthen  and  weaken, 
hasten  and  retard  them.  All  this  every  human  being 
learns  in  his  childhood  to  do,  through  a  countless 


60       DEVELOPMENT  OP  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

number  of  unsuccessful  experiments,  .without  direc- 
tion, primarily  because  every  human  being  comes  into 
the  world  provided  from  the  start  with  a  certain  ca- 
pacity of  sensation,  perception,  and  thought,  which 
sets  to  work  spontaneously  together  with  the  likewise 
inborn  capacity  of  movement.  Later,  however,  the 
development  of  this  capacity  is  carried  further  only 
under  the  direction  of  the  child's  kindred.  Then  the 
child  no  longer  learns  through  self-instruction,  as  he 
does  predominantly,  nay,  almost  exclusively,  in  all  the 
first  period,  but  he  learns  through  influence  exerted 
on  him  by  the  members  of  his  family. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  important  to  know  that  both 
ways  of  learning,  hence  both  kinds  of  employment  of 
the  thinking  capacity  of  the  child,  come  to  the  same 
thing — viz.,  that  external  sense-impressions  arouse 
motor  ideas  which  have  as  a  consequence  definite 
movements.  These  are  the  willed,  the  deliberate 
movements. 

Formerly,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  assumed,  rather 
uncritically  and  quite  generally,  that  the  voluntary 
movements  took  place  through  a  faculty  of  appetite  or 
desire  inborn  in  man,  not  capable  of  further  analysis  : 
the  desire  of  the  agreeable  was  the  spring  of  all  ac- 
tions, all  voluntary  movements.  But  with  such  an 
assumption  one  gets  no  further  than  before  in  knowl- 
edge of  the  origin  of  the  will ;  for  the  spring  (or  desire) 
is,  after  all,  but  a  word  that  puts  one  riddle  in  place  of 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  WILL.  61 

another.  Desire  presupposes  the  thing  to  be  explained, 
the  preferring,  wishing,  longing,  the  childish  "  I  want 
it."  I  lay  stress,  therefore,  on  showing  how  little  we 
are  justified  in  continuing  to  regard  desire  as  some- 
thing original.  Physiologically,  at  least,  the  child  in 
the  first  part  of  his  life  behaves  otherwise  than  as  a 
being  that  desires.  He  has  as  yet  no  ideas.  His  rela- 
tives merely  infer  from  the  movements,  the  attitude, 
the  position  and  situation  of  the  child,  certain  mental 
states,  as  discomfort,  displeasure,  on  account,  it  may 
be,  of  hunger.  From  their  own  subjective  condition 
in  like  circumstances  they  infer,  not  without  a  mix- 
ture of  imagination,  the  existence  of  a  similar,  or 
even  the  same,  state  in  their  child  at  the  beginning  of 
its  life.  As  if  the  child  knew  in  the  least  what  hun- 
ger is,  and  had  already  a  notion  that  its  discomfort 
could  be  allayed  by  milk!  The  hungry  newborn"! 
babe  by  no  means  cries  because  it  desires  milk;  its 
crying  is  simply  the  expression  of  great  discomfort. 
But  why  does  it  cry  in  discomfort?  The  correct 
answer  can  only  be,  that  thereby  a  certain  lessening 
of  its  discomfort  is  effected.  For  if  this  discomfort 
were  increased  by  crying,  the  child  would  be  quiet, 
and  the  vigorous  movement  of  the  respiratory  muscles 
in  the  loud  screaming,  that  is  often  almost  intoler- 
able even  to  the  mother  through  its  duration  and 
strength,  must  be  owing  simply  to  a  heightened  excit- 
ability of  the  central  organs  of  the  nervous  system. 


62       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  TEE  CHILD. 

If  the  function  of  nutrition  is  in  a  depressed  condi- 
tion from  a  lack  of  food,  then  the  central  nervous 
motor  apparatus  is  much  more  excitable  than  in  the 
child  satisfied  with  food ;  it  is  more  excitable  in  the 
child  that  is  cold  than  in  the  one  that  is  warm  and 
comfortable ;  more  excitable  in  the  wet  child,  because 
warmth  is  withdrawn  from  him  too,  than  in  the  one 
who  is  made  dry.  Hence,  what  is  wrongly  taken  for 
the  expression  of  desire  is  nothing  but  the  necessary 
consequence  of  heightened  excitability  of  the  nerv- 
ous system  ;  and  this  excitability,  as  we  see  confirmed 
a  hundredfold  in  the  most  different  sorts  of  animals, 
increases  and  diminishes  at  the  beginning  of  life 
chiefly  in  proportion  to  the  absence  or  the  supply 
of  food  and  of  fresh  air,  warmth  and  coolness ;  in 
brief,  according  to  the  fulfillment  or  nonfulfillment 
of  the  most  important  external  conditions  of  exist- 
ence. Thus  the  child  behaves  as  if  it  desired,  and  yet 
it  does  not  desire.  But  the  repeated  alternation  of 
much  movement  in  discomfort  and  less  movement 
after  alleviation  of  the  discomfort,  especially  during 
the  first  days,  leaves  behind  traces  in  the  central  nerv- 
ous substance,  which  make  possible  and  promote  the 
association  of  the  recollection  of  movement  with  the 
external  impression  that  removes  the  discomfort ; 
hence,  in  particular,  the  connection  between  luke- 
warm, sweet,  white  wetness  (milk)  with  removal  of 
discomfort.  Another  such  impression  is  the  cleans- 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  WILL.  63 

ing,  warm,  not-white,  not-sweet  wetness  (bath) ;  so, 
too,  the  smooth,  soft,  warm,  white  skin  of  the  mother. 
In  this  way,  through  the  gathering  of  primitive  expe- 
riences, thinking  is  by  degrees  aroused ;  and  through 
repetition  of  the  agreeable  and  the  disagreeable,  these 
are  gradually  distinguished  as  sources  of  the  feelings  of 
pleasure  and  discomfort.  Progress  in  the  accuracy  of 
this  discrimination  means  practice.  Mere  lack  of  the 
agreeable  is  .often,  to  the  child,  in  a  high  degree  dis- 
agreeable, causing  discomfort,  so  that  he  soon  reaches 
the  point,  by  means  of  continual  discrimination  of 
light  and  dark,  loud  and  low,  warm  and  cold,  dry  and 
wet,  etc.,  of  avoiding  as  far  as  possible  everything  that 
excites  in  him  unpleasant  feelings,  and  even  that  which 
does  not  cause  him  pleasant  feelings.  This  he  effects 
by  means  of  turning  away,  throwing  away,  and  many 
other  defensive  movements  formed  out  of  the  inborn 
defensive  reflexes  through  the  intervention  of  ideas. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  adjusts  himself  to  that  which 
excites  pleasure  in  him.  While  he  is  developing  the 
hereditary  instinctive  movement  of  seizing,  he  grasps 
much,  turns  his  head  and  his  gaze  toward  that  which 
excites  pleasure,  and  begins  to  move  in  the  correspond- 
ing direction.  Then  we  say  the  child  is  seeking.  But 
in  this  the  effective  agency  is  nothing  mystical,  is  no 
immanent  transcendent  desire,  no  impulse  in  the  sense 
of  the  earlier  philosophers ;  physiologically  speaking, 
it  is  in  the  last  analysis  the  excitability  of  the  pro- 


64:      DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

toplasm  in  the  nervous  system.  That  is  the  living 
thing  in  the  adult,  as  in  the  egg  and  in  the  child 
which  stands  between  the  two.  That  is  what  is  capa- 
ble of  excitability,  and  which  leads  as  well  to  the  im- 
perfect movements  of  the  child  as  to  the  more  perfect 
ideas,  later  on,  of  the  adult  who  wills.  It  would  take 
us  too  far  to  consider  more  in  detail  here  upon  this 
basis  the  process  of  willing,  which  is  fundamentally 
connected  with  deliberation. 

But  to  the  completion  of  this  sketch  of  the  devel- 
opment of  will  in  the  child  belongs  at  least  the  men- 
tion of  his  first  attempts  to  control  himself.  Only 
through  inhibitions  of  movements,  a  positive  willing- 
not,  not  the  mere  omission  of  willing,  does  this  great 
advance  in  the  intellectual  development  show  itself. 
So  long  as  the  child  can  not  discern  the  very  great 
value  to  himself  of  cleanliness — within  the  first  three 
fourths  of  the  first  year  in  general,  but  in  any  case 
within  the  first  half  year — we  can  hardly  speak  of 
the  beginning  of  inhibition  of  a  reflex  movement. 
But  after  unpleasant  consequences  of  letting-himself- 
go  have  gradually  been  experienced,  and  the  idea  of 
the  connection  of  this  with  his  own  conduct  has  been 
often  repeated,  there  comes  to  him  naturally  the  con- 
sideration that  the  stopping  of  certain  movements 
and  excretions,  that  quiet  and  obedience,  are  wont  to 
be  associated  with  more  pleasant  consequences  than 
the  opposite  conduct  which  has  hitherto  prevailed 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  WILL.  65 

alone.  Hence  arise  the  first  efforts  to  inhibit  volun- 
tarily some  reflexes  and  instinctive  movements;  and 
herewith  the  germ  of  self-  control  is  planted.  For  it  is 
preposterous  to  suppose  that  movements  such  as  cry- 
ing in  the  night  would  be  interrupted,  or  would  not 
take  place,  simply  on  account  of  the  lack  of  the  requi- 
site impulse — on  account  of  there  being  no  idea  present 
to  occasion  the  crying.  No,  the  idea  is  present,  but  is 
silenced,  overpowered,  made  ineffective,  and  such  an 
inhibition  is  by  all  means  of  great  consequence. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  considerable  development  of 
the  will  of  the  child,  and  one  that  is  of  the  greatest 
pedagogical  importance.  Yet  the  educator  must  be 
on  his  guard  against  straining  the  bow  too  tight  and 
too  often;  otherwise  the  discomfort  connected  with 
every  act  of  self-control  will  gain  the  preponderance 
over  the  results  of  insight  into  the  advantage  of  that 
control.  In  itself  the  repose  attained  by  voluntary 
inhibition  is  unchildlike,  and  a  child  that  invariably 
controlled  himself  would  cease  to  be  a  child. 


CHAPTEK  Y. 

THE  CHILD'S  FIRST 


FOR  a  long  time  and  widely  the  error  prevailed, 
that  for  the  child's  first  learning  there  was  absolute 
necessity  of  a  teacher  :  as  if  only  complete  thoughts, 
ideas  proceeding  from  the  perceptions  of  adults  and 
imparted  by  means  of  language  —  at  first  spoken,  later 
by  written  or  printed  words  —  could  be  impressed  upon 
the  childish  brain,  and  that  only  by  this  means,  there- 
fore, the  mind  would  finally  be  developed  in  the  right 
manner.  Herein  lies  a  gross  fallacy,  although  one 
that  often  escapes  notice.  Because  the  highest  culture 
can  not  be  attained  without  thorough  instruction  in 
language,  the  inference  was  drawn  that  this  culture  is 
attained  exclusively  through  instruction  in  language. 
Our  schools  are  still  suffering  from  this  error.  In  the 
first  period  after  birth  —  the  dawn,  as  it  were,  of  the 
intellectual  life  —  instruction  in  language  is  of  no  ac- 
count, because  sense-perception  is  the  means  by  which 
the  child  learns.  His  own  seeing  and  feeling,  his  own 
experience  —  e.  g.,  of  pain  when  he  hits  himself,  burns 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  LEARNING.  67 

himself,  or  falls  down — these  are  the  natural  teachers 
of  the  little  child.  Not  even  the  best  pictorial  illus- 
trations of  the  things  surrounding  the  child  have  any- 
thing like  the  educational  value  of  one  single  object 
seen  or  felt  by  himself.  One  who  sees  the  world 
through  colored  glasses  gets  a  false  notion  of  it.  Yel- 
low glasses  lend  to  a  landscape  in  winter  a  warm  tone ; 
blue  ones  in  the  midday  heat  of  summer  give  a  cold 
light,  like  that  of  the  moon.  Children  who  must 
make  their  acquaintance  with  the  world  through  gay 
picture-books,  indestructible  or  other,  or  through  the 
varying,  subjectively  colored  speech  of  adults,  can  not 
get  the  right  notion  of  it.  They  will  see  it,  on  the 
one  hand,  in  a  bright  light ;  on  the  other,  in  a  dull. 
In  culture,  the  great  thing  is  a  distinct  view  of  the 
world  based  on  one's  own  sense-perception.  Without 
this  we  have  no  genuine  picture  of  the  world,  but 
merely  the  picture  of  a  picture,  an  incorrect  copy. 

This  truth — which  ought  to  be  the  criterion  for 
the  right  training  of  children  at  home,  as  well  as  for 
the  regulation  of  our  whole  school  system,  from  the 
elementary  up  to  the  high  school — becomes  most  plain 
when  we  inquire  how  it  is  that  the  human  being  comet 
to  learn  what  no  language,  no  picture,  and  no  book, 
no  influence  whatever  of  another  human  being,  can 
impart  to  him  unless  he  has  knowledge  of  it  in  ad- 
vance. 

The  discrimination  of  colors,  the  discrimination  of 


68       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

tones,  of  cold  and  heat,  of  various  tastes  and  smells — 
in  fact,  even  the  discrimination  of  light  and  dark,  and 
that  of  left  and  right — all  this  no  child  can  learn 
through  words.  This  is  a  field  in  which  I  have  been 
at  work  with  special  predilection  for  years,  in  the  ob- 
servation of  little  children ;  but  it  is  too  large  to  be 
traversed  here  in  all  directions.  I  limit  myself  to  a  few 
examples.  How  shall  we  teach  a  child  the  difference 
between  red  and  green  ?  All  we  can  do  is  merely  to 
make  the  difference  plain  when  the  child  already  feels 
it ;  words  are  nothing  to  the  purpose,  they  have  to  do 
simply  with  the  naming ;  and  they  sound  differently 
in  different  languages,  having  no  relation  to  the  color- 
sensations  as  such.  Just  as  little  as  we  could  succeed 
in  making  a  normal  child  regard  red  and  green  as  the 
same,  or  the  fifth  as  not  different  from  the  octave,  just 
so  little  can  we  succeed  in  imparting  to  him,  if  he  is 
color-blind,  the  differences  of  these  impressions  by  in- 
struction through  words.  No  man  can  communicate 
to  another  what  color  is,  or  describe  to  him  a  tone. 
And  it  is  the  same  with  all  genuine  sensations.  One 
must  himself  have  them,  experience  them,  in  order  to 
know  what  they  are.  And  this  original  self-experi- 
ence is  in  general  for  all  instruction,  for  the  whole 
of  the  earliest  education,  far  more  important  than 
the  experiencing  over  again  of  that  which  others  have 
already  found  out  in  themselves,  and  which  they  now 
at  second-hand  impress,  cram,  not  to  say  pour  in 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  LEARNING.  69 

through,  a  funnel.  Here  applies  in  full  force  the  say- 
ing, "  If  you  don't  feel  it,  you  won't  get  it  by  running 
after  it." 

The  extraordinary  incitement  which  the  direct  ob- 
servation of  nature,  and  particularly  of  animate  nature, 
gives  during  the  whole  season  of  childhood  nothing 
else  can  supply  or  make  good.  A  murmuring  spring, 
a  leaf,  an  ear  of  corn,  a  tiny  beetle,  a  creeping  snail, 
nay,  even  a  single  hair,  becomes  to  the  child,  in  the 
critical  period  of  the  development  of  his  mind,  a  foun- 
tain of  pleasure  that  absorbs  him  wholly.  In  dealing 
with  the  most  insignificant  things  in  play  (cf.  Chapter 
III),  which  is  the  most  influential  school  for  the  cul- 
tivation of  reason  and  of  character,  the  mind  gets  its 
most  abundant  material  for  further  development. 

Thinking,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  can  not 
be  taught  to  any  one  by  instruction  through  words. 
No  child  is  instructed  in  it,  but  every  one  learns  of 
himself  to  think,  as  well  as  to  see  and  hear.  We  can 
do  almost  nothing  toward  it  at  the  beginning,  except 
to  remove  the  obstacles  that  check  it;  and  we  must 
not  hasten  it.  We  can  not  prevent  a  normal  child 
from  thinking.  But  the  finer  development  of  the 
faculty  of  thought — i.  e.,  of  the  inherited  capacity  for 
combining  ideas  that  arise  separately,  and  for  separat- 
ing combined  ideas  from  one  another — this  is  possible 
only  through  instruction,  instruction  in  observation 
and  in  language,  not  in  language  alone.  At  any  rate, 


70       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

as  appears  from  the  biographies  and  the  achievements 
of  men  who  have  received  one-sided  instruction,  not 
sufficiently  calling  into  exercise  their  own  powers  of 
observation,  thinking  is  defective,  judgment  warped, 
and  knowledge  of  one's  relations  to  the  world  arrest- 
ed, unless  one  is  from  childhood  familiar  with  realities 
through  his  own  experience.  But  on  this  side,  too, 
there  is  danger  of  having  too  much  of  a  good  thing. 
A  one-sidedness  in  the  direction  of  mere  observation, 
caused  by  devotion  to  the  business  in  hand,  by  exclu- 
sive occupation  with  reality  of  one  kind  only,  does 
not  permit  a  symmetrical  development  to  take  place ; 
and  the  difficulty  in  making  up  later  what  was  neg- 
lected in  youth  is,  that  the  plasticity  is  lost.  The 
young  hand  easily  learns  every  new  trade,  the  old 
hand  no  longer  any. 

If  in  a  large  manufactory  one  workman  does,  for 
years,  nothing  but  cut  paper,  another  nothing  but  fold 
it,  a  third  merely  packs  it,  these  men  can  not  easily 
exchange  their  parts  on  a  sudden  without  damage  to 
the  establishment,  nor  can  they  be  as  well  employed 
for  any  other  kind  of  work  offhand. 

The  great  evils  of  a  one-sided  instruction,  which  is 
based  perhaps  preponderating^  or  exclusively  upon 
writing  and  reading,  together  with  the  memorizing 
that  goes  with  it — the  study  of  letters,  in  fact— may 
already  be  made  intelligible  in  some  degree  from  the 
physiological  point  of  view.  On  account  of  the  peda- 


THE   CHILD'S  FIRST  LEARNING.  ft 

gogical  importance  of  the  after  consequences,  I  will 
briefly  show  how. 

Although  during  the  last  decade  a  considerable 
number  of  skillful  experimenters,  each  of  whom  thinks 
he  alone  has  found  the  truth  of  the  matter,  have  been 
contending  over  the  assignment  of  the  various  func- 
tions of  the  brain  to  the  separate  portions  of  the  brain  ; 
and  although,  without  doubt,  the  controversy  as  to 
details  will  last  a  long  time  yet,  still  the  fact  can  no 
longer  be  doubted  that  quite  definite  tracts  of  the 
cerebral  surface  are  associated  with  quite  definite 
sense-areas  and  kinds  of  movements.  To  mention  a 
single  one,  the  physiologist,  Hermann  Munk,  has  suc- 
ceeded, after  victorious  refutation  of  many  attacks,  in 
demonstrating  that  the  already  mentioned  portion  of 
the  occipital  lobe  designated  as  the  visual  sphere  (p.  9) 
is  the  only  place  in  which  visual  impressions  are  elabo- 
rated into  visual  ideas ;  and,  further,  it  can  not,  when 
fully  developed,  perform  any  other  functions  than 
those  belonging  to  the  act  of  vision.  If  this  spot  is 
stimulated,  then  movements  of  the  eyes  take  place. 
In  like  manner  can  no  longer  be  doubted  the  existence 
of  a  cerebral  center  that  has  been  much  longer  known, 
the  speech  center  discovered  by  the  distinguished 
Parisian  physician  and  investigator,  Broca.  These  are 
merely  examples.  Whether,  as  upon  the  map  separate 
countries  are  sharply  defined  from  one  another,  so 
likewise  separate  districts  of  the  cerebral  cortex  abut 


72       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

directly  upon  one  another,  or  whether  they  overlap 
one  another,  like  areas  of  touch  on  the  surface  of  the 
skin,  or  at  least  are  not  to  be  discriminated  with  ac- 
curacy from  one  another,  it  is  at  any  rate  certain  that 
the  development  of  the  cerebral  centers — that  is,  of 
areas  of  the  cerebral  cortex  associated  with  specific 
intellectual  activities — is  connected  with  exercise  or 
practice,  with  the  frequent  repetition  of  the  same 
kinds  of  movements  and  of  sense-impressions. 

One  who  never  learns  to  speak  has  no  speech  cen- 
ter. No  animal  has  such  a  center,  because  no  animal 
is  capable  of  exercising  himself  sufficiently  in  the  co- 
ordinated use  of  his  tongue  and  his  laryngeal  nerves 
and  muscles,  with  simultaneous  employment  of  his 
voice  as  expression  of  his  ideas.  And  even  the  micro- 
cephalous  human  child,  whose  skull  has  become  os- 
sified prematurely  so  that  the  brain  found  no  room 
for  further  growth — the  cretin,  the  idiot,  capable  of 
life  indeed,  but  incapable  of  speech — these  all  are  in 
the  same  condition.  The  vocal  nerves  and  muscles, 
the  tongue  and  the  larynx,  are  developed  ;  sensations, 
perceptions,  and  ideas  are  not  lacking,  although  they 
remain  upon  a  lower  level ;  but  the  ability  to  express 
these  by  means  of  the  vocal  apparatus  and  articula- 
tion, this  it  is  that  is  wanting  to  them,  even  when 
their  hearing  is  perfect.  They  can  not  build  the  bridge 
from  hearing  to  speaking,  because  their  brain  declines 
to  serve.  .  The  brain  is  developed  only  through  activ- 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  LEARNING.  73 

ity,  and  only  through  that  are  the  functions  localized 
and  associated  in  it.  It  is  from  the  beginning  fitted 
out  in  the  most  luxurious  manner  with  capacities  for 
learning  everything  possible ;  but  not  all  brains  just 
alike,  because  heredity  plays  an  essential  part  here.  A 
child  may  not  possess  a  single  one  of  the  many  supe- 
rior talents  of  his  father  and  mother,  but  may  have  in- 
herited instead  a  very  different  talent  from  his  grand- 
parents or  great-grandparents.  Hundreds  of  various 
proficiencies,  which  human  beings  acquire  with  great- 
er or  less  facility,  particularly  in  youth,  necessitate, 
each  for  itself,  the  development  of  a  special  center  in 
the  brain,  the  injury  or  destruction  of  which  will  en- 
tail the  abolishment  of  the  possibility  of  retaining 
that  proficiency,  and  hence  of  continuing  the  cerebral 
activity  corresponding  to  it.  Strange  as  it  may  sound, 
it  is  nevertheless  true  that  this  holds  good  not  only 
for  arts  laboriously  acquired,  perfected  in  a  long 
course  of  years  by  the  man  of  cultivation,  such  as 
playing  on  the  pianoforte,  writing,  drawing,  painting, 
but  also  for  much  less  esteemed  handicrafts,  sewing, 
knitting,  crocheting,  lace-making,  planing,  sawing, 
carving,  milking,  etc. 

What  need  of  multiplying  instances?  It  is  enough 
simply  to  point  to  the  comparative  physiology  of  the 
brain  and  the  pathological  anatomy  of  the  human 
brain,  as  well  as  the  experimental  physiology  of  the 
brain  of  two  very  intelligent  animals,  viz.,  the  dog 


74:       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE   CHILD. 

and  the  monkey,  in  order  to  make  evident  that  ac- 
cording to  the  occupation,  according  to  the  predomi- 
nating activity  of  an  animal  or  of  a  human  child,  its 
brain  must  allow  more  room  now  for  this,  now  for 
that  function.  A  creature  born  blind  has  no  visual 
sphere  and  does  not  acquire  any ;  one  born  deaf,  no 
auditory  sphere.  These  proportionally  large  areas  of 
the  brain  go  to  waste,  or  else  remain  free  in  part  for 
different  uses.  It  is  known  that  the  blind  have  more 
sensibility  of  touch  than  the  seeing,  and  that  the  deaf 
very  often  see  better  than  do  those  that  hear.  The 
auditory  sphere  borders  on  the  visual.  The  mammals 
almost  without  exception  have,  as  I  stated  (p.  19),  a 
much  larger  olfactory  lobe  than  man  has,  because  they 
occupy  themselves  more  with  smelling  than  he  does, 
and  this  characteristic  is  transmitted  to  their  posterity 
in  increased  degree.  The  latest  experiments  of  sur- 
geons and  anatomists  have  demonstrated  that  in  cer- 
tain disturbances  of  vision  certain  lesions  of  the  visual 
area  in  the  brain  exist,  just  as  in  case  of  certain  dis- 
turbances of  movements  of  the  limbs  are  found  certain 
alterations  in  certain  portions  of  the  central  nervous 
system,  which  may  be  the  result  of  arrested  nutrition, 
of  poisoning,  injury,  or  inflammation. 

All  these  new  experiences  are,  in  my  opinion,  emi- 
nently significant  in  regard  to  the  training  and  in- 
struction of  our  children ;  for  it  is  clear  that,  if  influ- 
ence is  exerted  in  a  definite  and  always  in  the  same 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  LEARNING.  ?5 

direction  upon  the  exceedingly  impressionable,  plastic 
brain  of  the  child,  the  brain  must  from  the  start  be 
developed  in  a  one-sided  manner  for  the  entire  life, 
and  that  the  finest  characteristic  a  man  can  possibly 
have — viz.,  harmonious  culture — can  not  be  attained. 

By  harmonious  activity  of  mind  I  understand  an 
activity  in  which  the  intellectual  and  the  emotional 
are  in  equipoise;  the  emotions  do  not  disturb  the 
working  of  the  intellect,  neither  does  a  stark  intellec- 
tualism  (such  as  at  this  day  unfortunately  too  often 
appears  precisely  in  the  most  cultivated  classes)  pre- 
vent feeling  from  having  its  due.  Harmonious  cul- 
ture, however,  implies  that  the  senses,  and  therefore 
the  observing  powers,  shall  be  exercised,  and  that  the 
body,  including  the  whole  external  personality,  shall 
not  be  neglected  as  compared  with  the  mind.  This 
must  be  taken  into  account  even  in  the  case  of  the 
smallest  child,  by  regulating  the  external  impressions 
that  act  upon  him ;  and  this  involves  selection  of 
what  he  is  to  learn. 

The  recognition  of  the  extraordinary  power  com- 
mitted to  the  family  of  the  little  child — a  power  that 
is  later  transferred  to  the  child  himself,  in  the  ability 
to  choose  what  is  to  be  learned — must  necessarily 
heighten  the  feeling  of  responsibility  in  the  members 
of  the  family.  It  is  a  pressing  duty  in  these  days  to 
have  regard  to  physiology  in  selecting  what  is  to  be 
learned,  as  well  as  in  determining  the  way  in  which  it 


76       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

is  to  be  learned.  If  we  do  not  heed  this,  if  we  forget 
that  neither  one-sided  concentration  upon  reading  and 
writing,  which  means  overfilling  of  the  brain  with  im- 
ages of  letters  or  figures,  nor  occupation  with  anything 
and  everything,  continually  changing,  which  means 
dissipation,  is  serviceable  for  the  intellectual  germs  in 
the  growing  brain  of  the  child,  then  we  ought  not  to 
be  surprised  at  the  evil  consequences  that  show  them- 
selves in  the  shape  of  arrested  mental  growth  both  at 
home  and  in  the  school.  Physicians,  especially  the 
superintendents  of  clinical  hospitals  and  alienists,  have 
frequent  opportunity  to  observe  those  diseases  that  are 
caused  by  too  long  and  persistent  tension  of  a  single 
part  of  the  nervous  system,  and  the  consequent  excess- 
ive one-sidedness.  Many  of  these  diseases  are  up  to 
the  present  time  incurable.  But  teachers,  who  have 
opportunity  only  in  exceptional  cases  to  observe  their 
pupils  in  later  life  after  these  have  left  school,  do  not 
note  in  the  individual  case  what  wrong  they  have 
done.  Those  consequences  that  make  medical  treat- 
ment necessary  are  classed  in  part  under  the  head 
of  "  trade  or  occupation-neuroses."  •  There  is  a  whole 
catalogue  of  convulsions  and  paralytic  affections 
which  are  occasioned,  like  writer's  cramp,  sewing 
cramp,  telegrapher's  cramp,  exclusively  by  the  prac- 
tice, carried  too  far,  of  one  and  the  same  form  of 
activity  with  which  the  brain  has  from  the  begin- 
ning been  drawn  into  sympathy;  and  extraordinary 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  LEARNING.  ^ 

patience,  great  acuteness,  and  much  skill  are  required 
in  order  to  alleviate  these  stubborn  ailments.  But 
before  it  gets  so  far  as  this,  there  are  disturbances 
that  do  not  appear  on  the  surface  and  are  not  thought 
remarkable  until  great  numbers  of  persons  are  seized 
at  the  same  time  as  by  an  epidemic  nervousness,  and 
their  intellectual  activity  is  turned  away  from  the  nat- 
ural, from  the  things  that  concern  us  in  health,  and  is 
occupied  with  illusions.  So  it  is  with  children  who 
are  too  early  forced  to  become  book-learned.  But  it 
would  carry  us  too  far  to  set  forth  here  the  bearing  of 
the  child's  mental  development  upon  reform  in  meth- 
ods of  instruction,  which  is  coming  to  be  regarded 
more  seriously  since  I  have  shown  it  to  be  necessary 
from  a  biological  standpoint.  What  I  have  just  said 
is  enough  to  show  how  much  the  mother  should  think 
about  the  care  of  the  nervous  system  of  her  darling, 
in  the  very  first  period  of  the  child's  learning.  More 
consideration  is  commonly  shown  for  the  stomach  than 
for  the  brain.  The  brain,  I  repeat,  should  neither 
be  developed  predominantly  in  one  direction  through 
preference  of  a  single  occupation  or  through  exclusive 
use  of  one  organ  of  sense,  which  produces  one-sided- 
ness;  nor  through  the  supply  of  intellectual  pabulum 
from  all  possible  quarters,  which  causes  dilettanteism. 
The  great  thing  is  rather,  as  has  long  since  been  ex- 
pressed very  briefly  and  forcibly,  "  letting  the  child 
alone."  At  the  beginning  of  life  the  organic  basis 


78      DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

of  mental  activity  is  capable  of  everything  good  and 
everything  bad,  but  concealed  as  yet,  like  the  flower 
in  the  bud. 

True,  the  newborn  child  is,  as  I  have  already  re- 
marked (p.  7),  capable  of  a  sensation  of  light,  but  is 
not  yet  able  to  see.  He  is  "mind-blind."  Further, 
he  is  prepared  to  hear  soon  all  kinds  of  sounds,  to 
smell,  to  taste,  to  feel ;  but  he  is  still  mind-deaf,  men- 
tally insensible — i.  e.,  he  has  a  sensation  of  light,  of 
sound,  of  warmth,  and  of  impressions  upon  his  skin 
and  his  organs  of  sense  in  general,  but  has  as  yet  no 
understanding  of  it  all,  because  his  cerebral  hemi- 
spheres are  not  yet  developed.  Our  language,  unfor- 
tunately, lacks  names  for  these  conditions  of  central 
anosmia  (smell-blindness — i.e.,  inability  to  interpret 
sensations  of  smell,  a  condition  in  which  many  adults 
continue  through  life) ;  central  ageusia  (taste-blind- 
ness) ;  central  anaesthesia  (touch-blindness — i.  e.,  in- 
ability to  interpret  impressions  of  touch)  ;  central 
akinesia  (movement-blindness).  Yet  all  children  must 
experience  these  states  of  physiological  defect  as  neces- 
sary phases  of  development.  Their  organs  of  sense 
they  have,  and  those  organs  are  in  good  condition  and 
receive  the  most  manifold  impressions  from  without; 
the  nerves  are  stimulated,  but  the  proper  parts  of  the 
cerebral  cortex  are  not  yet  capable  of  performing  their 
functions.  We  must  therefore  let  the  child  alone 
while  he  is  learning  to  see  and  hear,,  and  for  a  con- 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST   LEARNING.  79 

siderable  time  after.     The  disadvantage  arising  from  • 
a  later  beginning  of  methodical  instruction  is  in  any 
case  far  less  than  the  harm  done  by  over-excitement 
through  beginning  too  early. 

The  earlier  the  imperfectly  developed  central  nerv- 
ous system  is  subjected  to  a  strain  in  a  one-sided 
manner,  or  even  in  a  manifold  activity,  so  much  the 
earlier  does  it  become  dulled  and  so  much  the  less 
plasticity  it  retains  for  later  use.  But  the  longer  it 
retains  its  receptivity,  so  much  the  longer  does  youth 
last.  He  who  is  interested  in  much,  has  in  advance  a 
great  advantage  over  the  indifferent  person,  and  re- 
mains young  even  in  age;  whereas  the  indifferent 
becomes  old  in  the  season  of  youth.  What  we  call 
intellectual  freshness  is  essentially  the  extremely  valu- 
able faculty  of  taking  an  interest  in  many  things  and 
yet  of  applying  one's  self  at  will  persistently,  and  with 
concentrated  attention  to  a  single  subject.  The  little 
child  can  not  do  either  of  these  things.  He  is  at  first 
interested  in  little  else  than  his  milk,  and  during  his 
first  year  can  not  direct  his  attention  long  to  one  and 
the  same  thing  without  fatigue.  But  he  learns  both 
these  things,  without  the  instruction  of  grown  people, 
in  play,  and  in  play  his  impressionability  perceptibly 
increases.  Hence  it  is  advisable  not  to  shorten  un- 
necessarily the  first  learning-time  of  the  child,  in 
which  he  learns  most  through  self-instruction,  through 
his  own  experiences  in  what  we  call  childish  play. 


80       DEVELOPMENT   OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

The  child's  learning  to  think  consists  chiefly  in 
this :  the  understanding  of  the  simple  elements 
among  the  innumerable  sense-impressions,  which  are 
the  stimuli  of  his  sensory  nerves,  and  which  follow 
one  another  in  irregular  alternation,  now  strong,  now 
weak.  Much  time  is  needed  for  this  process;  for 
understanding  begins  with  the  operation  of  the  lowest 
intellectual  function,  discrimination,  which  belongs  to 
all  animals,  and  even,  in  a  certain  fashion,  to  the  living 
cell-contents  of  plants.  Every  living  thing  possesses 
a  faculty  of  discrimination.  The  living  protoplasm 
in  the  green  plant,  for  example,  discriminates  between 
light  and  darkness,  and  behaves  very  differently  by  day 
and  by  night.  The  smallest  living  microbes  distin- 
guish acutely  between  the  character  of  the  habitat 
suitable  for  fostering  them  and  the  unsuitable ;  and 
they  increase  in  the  former  lodging  rapidly,  producing 
often  wasting  diseases,  while  in  the  latter  they  multi- 
ply slightly  or  not  at  all. 

Animals  distinguish,  by  means  of  the  living  pro- 
toplasm of  their  sensory  cells,  the  sensations  occa- 
sioned by  impressions  upon  their  skin,  their  eyes,  their 
organs  of  sense  in  general.  So  does  the  human  child. 
But  he  goes  much  farther,  for  he  distinguishes  too, 
much  more  acutely  than  the  animal,  the  ideas  arising 
from  the  sensations,  feelings,  perceptions,  by  means  of 
the  living  protoplasm  of  his  brain.  What  seemed  at 
the  beginning  the  same,  or  very  like,  is  gradually 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  LEARNING.  81 

separated  into  not  the  same  and  not  like.  And  from 
this  it  appears  that  it  is  much  easier  to  discover  the 
likenesses  of  different  impressions  than  the  differences 
of  like  impressions.  How  often  occurs,  even  with  the 
adult,  the  confounding  of  two  physiognomies !  Here 
the  resemblances  of  the  two  strike  the  eye  at  once, 
whereas  longer  observation  is  required  to  satisfy  us  in 
regard  to  the  unlikeness,  or  at  any  rate  to  express  that 
in  words.  The  child  is  much  better  organized  for  the 
apprehension  of  small  agreements  than  for  the  appre- 
hension of  small  variations.  He  takes  the  wine-bottle 
for  his  milk-bottle,  the  whitish  Goulard  water  in  it  for 
his  milk ;  and  he  amuses  his  mother  by  confounding  a 
hundred  small  objects,  or  sounds,  that  resemble  one 
another,  while  he  is  practicing  himself  in  discrimina- 
tion. 

It  is  because  pleasure  arises  from  many  impercep- 
tible agreements — a  consonance ;  whereas  displeasure 
is  caused  by  lack  of  agreement — dissonance — as  was 
remarked  in  the  year  1712  by  the  great  Leibnitz  in  re- 
gard to  music ;  it  is  for  this  reason  that  the  agree- 
ment found  by  one's  self  is  preferred,  while  the  disturb- 
ance of  the  agreement  in  details,  that  is  sought  out  or 
forced  upon  us,  is  less  regarded.  In  the  course  of 
countless  generations  this  unequal  valuation  of  the  im- 
pressions has  become  established  through  inheritance, 
so  that  now  the  child  in  his  learning  to  think,  in  his 
discrimination  of  ideas,  much  prefers  to  put  together 


82       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

and  keep  together  similar  qualities  rather  than  dis- 
similar ;  the  latter  do  not  give  so  much  satisfaction, 
or  at  any  rate  not  so  much  delight. 

In  this  matter  the  primitive  activity  of  the  under- 
standing, comparison,  finds  the  most  extended  em- 
ployment. It  forms  the  basis  of  all  later  processes  of 
thought. 

We  may  find  at  once  instruction  and  entertainment 
in  observing  the  manner  in  which  little  children  com- 
pare together  two  objects  recognized  as  different,  plac- 
ing them  side  by  side,  over  and  under  each  other; 
how  the  difference  is  made  larger  or  smaller,  and  one 
or  the  other  is  pulled  and  twisted  and  turned  upside 
down.  But  the  manifold  significance  of  simple  desig- 
nations of  space,  as,  for  example,  of  the  words  "  Eound 
the  other  way,"  in  regard  to  a  ninepin,  perhaps,  that  ] 
is  to  be  laid  in  a  box,  is  not  to  be  expressed  by  words. 
When  the  child  ignorant  of  words  turns  the  ninepin, 
reverses  it,  turns  it  to  the  left,  to  the  right,  inclines 
it  with  the  head  of  it  down,  then  up,  and  then  lays 
it  crosswise,  he  is  comparing  it.  He  is  thinking  and 
learning ;  and  by  such  trying  and  testing  he  is  gradu- 
ally prepared  to  compare  in  like  manner  more  com- 
plicated objects ;  but  not  yet  events,  and  not  abstract, 
higher  ideas  derived  from  objects  and  events — i.  e., 
concepts.  For  this  there  is  need  of  language. 

As  a  whole,  the  first  development  of  thinking  and 
learning  in  the  child  may  be  compared  to  the  first  de- 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  LEARNING.  83 

velopment  of  the  forms  of  the  animal  coming  to  being 
in  the  egg.  The  first  thing  that  happens  is  the  sep- 
aration of  the  homogeneous,  or  at  least  undistinguish- 
able,  formative  cells  into  heterogeneous,  the  differences 
of  which  become  greater  and  greater  in  the  progress 
of  the  development.  If  the  differentiation  progresses 
properly,  without  disturbance,  every  group  has  then  a 
certain  size  in  proportion  to  the  whole,  a  certain  con- 
dition and  function,  and  a  faultless  being  is  born.  But 
if  this  harmonious  development  is  disturbed,  then  it 
may  easily  happen  that  one  group  of  formative  cells 
grows  faster  than  the  others,  and  at  their  expense.  In 
consequence  of  this,  some  parts  are  arrested  in  their 
development  during  their  differentiation,  and  some 
one  part  gets  an  exaggerated,  monstrous  development. 
The  final  outcome  is,  under  the  circumstances,  an 
ugly  abortion  incapable  of  life. 

The  application  of  this  description  to  the  child's 
learning  follows  of  itself  from  what  has  gone  before. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

INTELLECT  WITHOUT  LAKGUAGE  AND  LANGUAGE 
WITHOUT  INTELLECT. 

IF  the  capacity  of  thought  is  inborn  in  every  hu-. 
man  being — and  there  can  no  longer  be  a  doubt  about 
it — the  consequence  does  not  follow  that  the  human 
being  can  reach  a  high  grade  of  development  without 
language.  Even  at  this  day  many  persons  suppose 
that  without  articulate  speech,  and  therefore  without 
words,  there  is  no  understanding,  no  thinking,  no 
memory  even.  I  have,  however,  proved  that  careful 
observation  of  little  children  alone,  particularly  of 
those  born  deaf  and  who  do  not  learn  ordinary  lan- 
guage, furnishes  complete  proof  of  the  incorrectness 
of  this  tradition  of  the  schools.  In  fact,  we  do  not 
need  first  to  point  to  the  understanding  of  animals,  to 
the  abundant  and  excellent  observations  made  by 
friends  of  animals  in  the  fields  and  the  woods,  in  zoo- 
logical gardens  and  aquariums — observations  some- 
what more  taken  into  account  of  late  years  by  scien- 
tific investigators ;  we  need  only  to  go  diligently  to 


INTELLECT  WITHOUT   LANGUAGE.  85 

work  in  the  nurseries  of  our  own  homes,  in  order  to 
collect  facts  for  the  demonstration. 

When,  for  example,  the  child  as  yet  absolutely 
without  speech  strikes,  with  a  spoon  in  his  right  hand, 
the  plate,  the  newspaper,  the  table,  takes  notice  of  the 
sound,  and  thereupon,  taking  the  spoon  in  his  left 
hand,  repeats  the  same  acoustic  experiments,  there  is 
in  this  a  sign  of  intellect  which  seeks  for  causes.  The 
cause  of  the  sound  is  not  in  the  right  hand,  as  the 
right  hand  is  not  the  only  one  that  produces  the 
sound ;  and,  what  surprises  the  child  most  when  he 
strikes  on  the  plate,  not  only  can  the  right  hand, 
pressed  firmly  on  it,  dull  the  sound  made  by  striking 
with  the  left  hand,  but  likewise  the  left  hand  can  dull 
the  sound  when  the  striking  is  done  with  the  right. 
Thus  an  infant  deliberates  when  he  has  no  knowledge 
or  use  of  words.  If  the  child  has  learned  to  walk,  but 
not  yet  to  talk,  he  surprises  us  by  his  notions.  He 
wants  to  take  down  a  biscuit  from  the  cupboard  that 
is  too  high  for  him ;  he  tries  in  vain,  and  then,  without 
any  suggestion  from  others,  he  goes  and  gets  a  cricket, 
and  with  unspeakable  effort  brings  it  to  the  right 
place.  Now  he  can  conveniently  lay  hold  of  the  thing 
desired.  All  this  involves  an  extended  process  of  de- 
liberation, the  application  of  experiences,  and  without 
language.  The  child's  reasoning,  even  when  erroneous, 
is,  in  the  utter  lack  of  language,  a  proof  of  the  devel- 
opment of  the  intellect  for  itself.  For  example,  when 
8 


86       DEVELOPMENT   OF   MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

the  child  that  has  no  language  has  shut  a  door  so  that 
the  lock  catches,  and  every  adult  person  must  regard 
the  door  as  closed  fast,  the  child  often  tries  it  a  long 
time  with  his  fingers,  and  presses  against  it  with  his 
body ;  he  is  testing  whether  the  door  is  really  shut ; 
he  doubts  about  it  because  he  does  not  understand  the 
effect  of  the  bolt.  If  the  watering-pot  has  become 
empty,  the  child  keeps  on,  none  the  less,  watering  the 
flowers  with  it,  probably  in  the  belief  that  the  water- 
ing-pot must,  when  in  the  right  position,  continue  to 
supply  water,  inasmuch  as  he  has  seen  water  come  out 
to  the  last  when  adults  were  watering  plants.  Even 
the  continuance  of  the  sucking  at  an  empty  nursing- 
bottle,  which  was  perhaps  not  sufficiently  filled,  is  an 
act  of  intellect ;  for  continued  sucking  at  the  breast 
did  bring  more  milk  into  the  mouth,  and  hence  the 
erroneous  inference  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  bottle 
can  be  seen  to  be  empty.  Another  sign  of  intellect  is 
the  holding  up  of  an  earring  to  the  mother's  ear  by 
an  infant  wholly  destitute  of  language.  As  soon  as 
he  begins  to  combine  such  earlier  observations  of  a 
complex  nature  with  present  ones,  thought-activity  is 
already  well  advanced. 

It  affords  a  special  intellectual  pleasure  to  discover 
such  facts  in  the  second  half  year  of  a  child's  life. 
Any  one  who  observes  attentively  and  patiently,  and 
who  practices  himself  in  interpreting  the  expression  of 
the  childish  countenance,  must  acquire  the  conviction 


INTELLECT   WITHOUT  LANGUAGE.  87 

that  every  human  being,  long  before  he  learns  his 
mother-tongue — nay,  before  he  understands  the  mean- 
ing of  words — at  any  rate  entirely  independently  of 
any  possible  premature  understanding  of  words  — 
shows  intelligent  actions,  is  capable  of  deliberation, 
and — a  fact  on  which  especial  stress  is  to  be  laid — he 
surpasses,  ^precisely  in  this  direction,  the  most  highly 
endowed  vertebrate  animals ;  for  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  in  those  creatures  the  most  surprising  ex- 
hibitions of  their  intellectual  activity  are  brought 
about  by  training  at  the  hands  of  man :  e.  g.,  count- 
ing up  to  five,  by  the  great  ape  which  Eomanes  trained 
and  caused  to  be  trained,  with  straws ;  and  the 
performances  of  bird-dogs  in  seeking  and  fetching. 
The  Indian  elephants,  the  Arabian  horses,  the  St. 
Bernard  dogs,  and  tame  monkeys,  when  they  have 
attained  the  highest  degree  of  development  of  brute 
intellect,  understand  more  of  human  language,  of  the 
commands  of  their  masters,  than  the  human  child 
understands  (although  he  surpasses  those  animals  in 
sagacity)  of  the  words  that  his  mother  says  to  him. 
The  child,  while  ignorant  of  language,  has  already 
more  intellect  than  the  most  sagacious  animal  at  the 
highest  point  of  its  intellectual  development,  because 
he  learns  faster  than  any  animal  whatever. 

But  the  objection  might  be  urged  that  the  child 
has  merely  learned,  after  all,  to  act  intelligently  on 
account  of  his  intercourse  with  intelligent  human 


88       DEVELOPMENT  OP  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

beings  that  use  language,  and  in  fact  exclusively  on 
account  of  his  hearing  spoken  language  which  has, 
unconsciously  on  his  part,  been  appropriated  and 
utilized  by  him,  so  that  in  reality  it  is  language  alone 
that  has  brought  to  development  the  intellect  of  the 
child  not  yet  able  to  speak.  It  is  therefore  important 
to  observe  also  those  children  in  whom  every  possi- 
bility of  this  sort  is  lacking.  Children  born  com- 
pletely deaf  are  unfortunately  not  very  rare ;  and 
although  the  so-called  deaf  and  dumb,  who,  as  we 
know,  are  not  dumb,  but  only  word-dumb,  and  do 
utter  inarticulate  sounds,  can  later,  by  means  of  toil- 
some instruction,  be  advanced  to  talking  with  the 
fingers,  and  partially  to  articulate  speech  by  means  of 
the  touch-sense  of  the  tongue  and  the  reading  of  the 
lips,  still  there  are  many  who  grow  up  without  instruc- 
tion in  verbal  language.  These  children  have,  how- 
ever, through  the  senses  of  sight  and  touch,  a  large 
number  of  ideas,  and  they  often  have  a  remarkable 
understanding.  They  can  make  themselves  under- 
stood when  with  their  fellows  by  looks,  gestures,  and 
all  sorts  of  signs  that  are  quite  unintelligible  to  adults. 
They  have  at  their  disposal  an  elaborately  developed 
mimic  art  that  is  extraordinary.  They  are  pantomim- 
ists.  And  the  height  of  culture  such  a  deaf-mute  can 
reach  proves  at  least  that  the  existence  of  the  intellect 
is  not  bound  up  with  the  hearing  or  learning  of  articu- 
late speech.  Actual  proofs,  as  well  as  simple  inferences 


INTELLECT  WITHOUT  LANGUAGE.  89 

from  unquestionable  experiences  of  teachers  of  deaf- 
mutes,  demonstrate  that  quite  generally  the  formation 
of  simple  ideas  and  the  combination  of  them  into  new 
ideas,  and  also  the  separation  of  individual  ideas  from 
a  complication  of  them — in  a  word,  thought — is  not 
dependent  upon  the  learning  of  words.  Bather  is  it 
the  case,  as  I  have  shown  in  the  book  that  has  been 
mentioned,  that  ideas  are  the  necessary  previous  con- 
dition for  the  understanding  of  the  first  words  learned, 
and  therefore  for  learning  to  talk.  If  these  ideas  are 
wanting,  the  development  of  language  is  not  attained ; 
there  is  only  a  certain,  very  slight,  development  of 
the  intellect,  which  does  not  go  beyond  that  of  the 
brute. 

This  higher  animal  intelligence  is  shown  by  those 

human  beings,  degraded  or  grown  wild,  whom  we  call 

"brute-men,"  who   happily  are  but   rarely  found  in 

3  farther  civilization  spreads, 

be  possible  for  little  children, 

ent  or  malicious  intent  from 

up  in  the  wilderness  partly 

TS  may  pass  before  they  are 

•unts  of  such  cases  have  a  pe- 

>   experiment  can  supply  the 

mately,  the  narratives  extant 

and    defective ;    they   come 

centuries,  and  have  not  been 

>f   trained    physiologists   and 


90   DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

psychologists.  Still,  whatever  the  deduction  to  be 
made  for  arbitrary  additions  from  the  imagination  of 
the  chroniclers,  this  much  remains :  that  children 
growing  up  in  the  wilderness  do  not  in  all  cases  lose 
the  capacity  for  culture,  and  are  not  by  any  means 
completely  imbruted. 

Several  cases  may  be  found  described  in  the  trea- 
tise of  Prof.  A.  Rauber  (the  value  of  which  is  not  suf- 
ficiently 'appreciated),  published  in  1885,  entitled 
"  Homo  Sapiens  Ferus,  or  the  Condition  of  the  Hu- 
man Being  Become  Wild  and  its  Significance  for  Sci- 
ence, the  State,  and  the  School."  In  general,  the  ac- 
counts are  to  the  effect  that  of  wild  beasts  or  beasts  of 
the  chase,  with  which  the  isolated  children  are  said  to 
have  grown  up,  only  bears  and  wolves  are  named  ;  of 
domestic  animals  that  graze  on  the  mountains,  only 
sheep  and  pecora  (possibly  goats).  The  countries  in 
which  within  the  last  five  centuries  such  brute-chil- 
dren, forest-children,  mountain-children,  or  whatever 
they  may  be  called,  have  been  captured,  are  Ireland, 
Belgium,  Holland  (on  the  Rhenish- Prussian  border), 
Lithuania,  Siebenbiirgen  (on  the  Wallachian  border), 
Hungary,  France  (Champagne,  Aveyron,  the  Pyre- 
nees), and  Germany  (Hesse,  Bavaria,  Hanover).  Con- 
sidering the  geographical  dissimilarity  of  the  distribu- 
tion, together  with  the  striking  similarity  in  accounts 
that  come,  independent  of  one  another,  out  of  the 
most  varied  times  concerning  the  behavior  of  the 


INTELLECT   WITHOUT  LANGUAGE.  91 

foundlings,  the  most  stubborn  doubter   must  admit 
that  we  are  not  dealing  here  with  mere  legends. 

The  accounts  really  deserve  a  very  thorough  exam- 
ination. Every  one  of  them  is  instructive,  and  shows 
how  little  applicable  to  the  uneducated,  isolated  hu- 
man being  are  the  words  of  Schiller :  "  The  dignity 
of  man !  no  more  of  that,  I  pray  you.  Give  him  food 
and  a  place  to  dwell  in ;  when  you  have  covered  his 
nakedness,  the  dignity  will  come  of  itself." 

For  the  question  before  us  several  details  are  im- 
portant, because  they  show  that  an  imbrutement 
caused  by  the  separation  of  children  from  human  so- 
ciety does  not,  after  all,  invariably  suppress  the  ca- 
pacity of  intellectual  development ;  and  that  those 
imbruted  children  that  learned  to  talk  had  a  whole 
circle  of  ideas,  and  turned  to  practical  account  the 
experiences  they  had  in  the  wilderness. 

The  Hessian  boy,  unable  to  speak,  who  was  cap- 
tured about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  ran 
on  all-fours,  but  learned  to  walk  erect  and  to  talk. 

The  Bamberg  boy  without  speech  (at  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century)  showed  an  "  astonishing  sup- 
pleness and  nimbleness  in  jumping  and  running,  espe- 
cially on  all-fours,"  but  among  human  beings  he  grad- 
ually took  on  "  an  orderly  behavior,"  and  married  ;  he 
must,  therefore,  have  learned  also  to  walk  upright 
and  to  talk. 

The  Irish  youth  (in  the  seventeenth  century)  with- 


92       DEVELOPMENT  OP  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

out  speech  "  bleated  like  a  sheep,"  and  did  not  put  off 
his  brutish  ways  (sylvestre  ingenium)  except  through 
constraint  and  after  living  a  long  time  among  human 
beings. 

The  Lithuanian  boy  (likewise  in  the  seventeenth 
century)  had  a  voice  like  a  bear's,  but  learned,  accord- 
ing to  one  account,  to  speak ;  according  to  another, 
not ;  and  learned  to  walk  erect. 

The  famous  Peter  von  Hameln,  who  was  dis- 
covered in  1724,  walked  erect,  but,  as  it  appears, 
learned  to  talk  but  little,  as  was  the  case  with  the  boy 
of  Aveyron. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  girl  of  Songi  (1731)  ac- 
quired speech  perfectly,  although  at  first  she  acted 
like  a  beast  of  prey. 

As  to  other  human  "  wildings,"  it  is  not  reported 
that  they  did  not  learn  to  speak  at  all,  but  neither  is 
it  reported  that  they  did  learn  to  speak ;  the  accounts 
are  too  scanty. 

The  outcome  of  the  facts  in  our  possession  is,  that 
the  development  of  the  brain  is  very  considerably  re- 
tarded in  case  of  a  separation  of  many  years'  duration 
of  a  child  from  other  human  beings,  in  spite  of  a  pro- 
digious development  of  sense-acuteness  and  muscular 
strength,  but  that  the  capability  of  development  is  not 
lost. 

Still,  the  difficulty  of  humanizing  the  imbruted 
child  is  far  greater  than  that  of  developing  the  original 


INTELLECT  WITHOUT  LANGUAGE.  93 

child,  because  in  the  former  too  much  has  to  be  un- 
learned which  in  the  latter  exists  only  potentially,  and 
is  checked  in  advance  in  its  development ;  and  also 
because  the  finer  development  of  the  cerebral  cortex, 
indispensable  to  the  higher  intellectual  activity,  has 
been  kept  back  in  consequence  of  the  lack  of  impres- 
sions, particularly  of  human  actions  worthy  of  imita- 
tion. The  cerebral  hemispheres  would  inevitably  lose 
in  plasticity  as  years  went  on. 

But  these  imbruted  children,  although  they  do  not 
talk— some  of  them  even  do  not  laugh — and  do  not 
learn  to  walk  upright,  can  yet  seek  their  food  with 
great  skill,  and  with  a  slyness,  suppleness,  dexterity, 
and  endurance  nowhere  else  observed  in  human  be- 
ings; and  they  attain  later,  with  careful  treatment 
and,  what  is  more  to  the  point  here,  through  gradual 
instruction,  a  degree — though,  to  be  sure,  a  very  low 
degree — of  culture.  This  would  not  be  possible  if  they 
had  not  human  intellect :  otherwise,  animals  without 
understanding  would  in  like  manner  be  capable  of 
being  civilized ;  but  all  attempts  in  this  direction  have 
failed. 

On  the  other  hand,  these  same  imbruted  children 
furnish  the  proof  of  the  indispensableness  of  the  learn- 
ing of  language  for  the  attainment  of  full  intellectual 
activity  and  the  development  of  feeling  by  means  of 
learning  to  speak  in  the  first  years  of  life  ;  for  they 
have  almost  all  lost  the  ability  to  frame  thoughts  that 


94:       DEVELOPMENT   OF  MIND   IN  THE   CHILD. 

go  beyond  the  immediate  surroundings,  and  to  rise  to 
higher  concepts — to  the  highest  reason.  That  this  ca- 
pacity which  first  lends  to  human  life  its  true  worth,  is 
possible  only  through  the  learning  of  language — and, 
in  fact,  of  verbal  language,  not  picture-language  or 
sign-language,  or  any  other  means  of  understanding 
— nobody  denies.  Nevertheless,  we  must  not  there- 
fore suppose  that  with  the  complete  possession  of  ver- 
bal language  is  given  at  the  same  time  a  perfect  reason 
also.  There  are  superior  instruments  that  are  played 
in  a  masterly  manner  by  musicians  unsurpassed  in  the 
technique  of  their  profession,  yet  these  musicians  do 
not  all  have  what  we  call  "  soul "  in  music.  So  there 
are  eminent  speakers  and  learned  men  who  are  mas- 
ters of  several,  perhaps  a  dozen,  different  languages, 
but  who  may  not  have  anywhere  near  so  much  in- 
tellect as  some  silent  thinker  who  knows  only  his 
mother-tongue,  and  yet  sets  a  world  astir  through  his 
combinations. 

In  the  child,  too,  no  special  activity  of  intellect  is 
proved  by  the  quick  learning  of  speech,  the  extended 
knowledge  of  words,  and  the  ready  use  of  words 
learned.  On  the  contrary,  excessive  speaking  argues 
less  intelligence,  because,  of  course,  less  time  remains 
for  thinking.  There  are  cases  of  mental  derangement 
and  anomalies,  in  which  men  and  women  put  together 
meaningless  words,  just  as  the  child  does  at  a  certain 
epoch  of  its  development,  in  continually  repeated  sue- 


INTELLECT  WITHOUT  LANGUAGE.  95 

cession,  intolerable  at  last  to  the  hearers,  sometimes 
uttering  them  with  monotonous  voice,  sometimes 
with  varying  tones,  screaming,  singing,  babbling. 
Here  we  have  language  without  intellect ;  the  talking 
engine  lacks  an  engineer,  the  driver  of  the  wagon  has 
dropped  the  reins,  the  horses  have  run  away  and  are 
leaping  without  control.  In  the  idiot,  on  the  other 
hand,  language  is  lacking  on  account  of  defective  de- 
velopment of  his  brain  from  the  beginning.  The 
ideas  necessary  for  the  learning  of  verbal  language 
can  not  be  formed  at  all ;  hence  he  remains  at  the 
stage  of  an  irrational  animal.  In  vain  do  we  look  for 
signs  of  a  higher  intellectual  activity  in  him,  such  as 
we  find  in  the  normally  formed  child  that  grows  up 
in  isolation,  without  the  formative  impressions  of  hu- 
man society. 

From  these  considerations  we  see  how  indispen- 
sable for  the  development  of  the  higher  activity  of 
intellect  in  the  child  is  the  learning  of  speech.  This 
does  not  indeed  generate  reason,  but  without  it  reason 
does  not  come  to  development.  But  we  perceive  also 
that  to  the  learning  of  language  there  go  two  kinds  of 
things  :  first,  a  plastic  brain  with  the  organs  of  sense 
belonging  to  it;  second,  certain  influences  of  other 
human  beings  to  act  on  these  organs  of  sense  and 
thereby  on  the  brain,  so  that  it,  while  it  is  growing, 
develops  itself  more  finely  in  certain  portions.  Now, 
how  must  the  ideas  be  constituted  which  are  requisite 


96       DEVELOPMENT   OF  MIND   IN  TEE  CHILD. 

for  the  learning  of  speech,  and  which  make  articulate 
speech  possible  ? 

This  question  can  be  satisfactorily  answered  only 
when  the  nature  of  the  impressions  is  ascertained 
which  act,  on  the  part  of  the  mother  and  the  other 
members  of  the  family,  particularly  the  elder  brothers 
and  sisters,  upon  the  child  before  it  learns  to  speak. 
These  must  first  be  considered,  at  any  rate,  because 
without  them  language  is  not  forthcoming.  Here, 
above  all,  must  be  mentioned  the  looks  and  gestures, 
the  changes  of  place,  the  various  bodily  movements  of 
the  child's  relatives.  More  effective  even  than  the 
voice,  after  the  first  three  months,  is  the  expression  of 
the  countenance  of  the  mother.  Even  in  the  second 
month  she  may  be  recognized  and  localized,  together 
with  her  voice.  Individual  children  distinguish  with 
certainty  as  early  as  the  third  month  whether  the 
mother  has  a  hat  on  or  not ;  and  toward  the  end  of 
the  first  three  months  the  signs  of  intellect  are  multi- 
plied with  surprising  rapidity.  The  friendly  look  is 
distinguished  from  the  severe,  the  cheerful  from  the 
serious,  with  accuracy.  A  slow  turning  away  of  the 
mother's  gaze  is  already  an  intelligible  sign  of  dis- 
approbation, while  a  barely  perceptible  raising  of  the 
corners  of  the  mouth  indicates  a  satisfied  frame  of 
mind,  which  the  child  with  a  smile  understands.  It  is 
as  if  between  mother  and  child  there  existed  a  com- 
munity of  soul.  She  seems  to  think  of  the  child  even 


INTELLECT   WITHOUT  LANGUAGE.  97 

in  her  sleep,  and  the  child  feels  without  words  what  its 
mother  wishes.  A  great  number  of  adaptive  move- 
ments made  by  members  of  the  family  are  understood 
without  the  slightest  possibility  of  imitating  them  or 
of  intentionally  executing  similar  ones.  The  child's 
look,  when  he  is  scanning  the  doings  of  adults  about 
him,  often  takes  on  an  inquiring  expression  that  is 
strongly  marked  as  early  as  the  fifth  month.  Their 
coming  and  going,  their  sitting  down  and  standing  up, 
their  walking  and  turning  about,  attract  in  a  high 
degree  the  attention  of  the  infant.  He  gives  one  the 
impression  of  studying  what  significance  these  changes 
in  his  field  of  vision  may  have.  Meanwhile  he  has  de- 
veloped the  inherited,  but  never  innate,  movement  of 
seizing ;  he  stretches  out  his  arms  longingly,  and  he 
examines  by  feeling  not  only  inanimate  things  but 
also  the  separate  parts  of  the  heads  of  his  father  and 
mother,  pulls  at  their  hair,  convincing  himself  that 
it  is  firmly  attached,  also  at  their  ears,  and  he  fol- 
lows with  his  gaze  the  movements  of  the  hand  that 
is  about  to  offer  anything  to  him  or  to  take  some- 
thing away. 

A  thing  that  did  not  make  the  least  impression 
during  the  first  two  months — the  quick  thrusting 
of  the  hand  or  of  one's  head  at  the  face  of  the 
babe — now,  after  the  eighth  week  has  passed,  sud- 
denly produces  a  winking  of  the  eyes,  as  in  the  case  of 
adults.  This  proves  clearly  that  the  sudden  altera- 


98       DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

tion  in  the  babe's  field  of  vision  is  perceived.  The 
movement  I  am  speaking  of  is  a  very  quick,  responsive 
movement,  having  the  character  of  a  reflex  and  an 
acquired  reflex.  But  it  is  not  of  the  same  order  as  the 
before-mentioned  alteration  of  the  pupil  when  the  eye 
is  suddenly  exposed  to  light.  This  latter  reflex  is 
hereditary  and  innate,  and  does  not  require  for  its  ex- 
istence so  high  an  order  of  brain  centers  as  does  the 
other  visual  reflex,  which  does  not  appear  until  the 
visual  spheres  have  entered  upon  their  function. 
Hence  I  regard  this  winking  of  the  eyes  as  a  cri- 
terion for  the  beginning  of  a  higher  cerebral  activ- 
ity, and  in  particular  of  the  representation,  in  idea, 
of  a  movement.  For  if  the  closing  of  the  lid  follows, 
there  must  take  place  an  intellectual  elaboration,  how- 
ever brief,  of  an  alteration  in  the  field  of  vision — a 
process  that  had  not  taken  place  previously.  Previ- 
ously you  might  sprinkle  water  on  the  eye,  and  the  eye 
would  not  be  closed  ;  now  you  can  not  approach  the 
eye  without  occasioning  the  closing  of  the  lid.  But 
when  this  reaction  is  once  inaugurated,  it  remains 
throughout  the  whole  life ;  and,  as  we  know,  a  good 
deal  of  practice  and  of  self-control  are  needed  to  re- 
frain from  starting  when  a  hand  is  suddenly  thrust 
at  the  face,  even  when  there  is  a  glass  plate  be- 
tween the  two.  There  is  in  this  movement  a  kind  of 
defense  against  a  disagreeble  impression.  Every  con- 
siderable sudden  alteration  in  the  field  of  vision,  even 


INTELLECT  WITHOUT  LANGUAGE.  99 

when  it  has  agreeable  consequences,  is  yet  disagreeable 
at  the  first  instant  on  account  of  its  suddenness.  And 
if  the  infant  has  perceived  this,  he  already  manifests 
intellect ;  and  his  lid-movement  might  be  designated 
as  the  first  expression  of  it,  as  a  speech  without 
words. 

But  he  speaks,  very  soon  after  this,  through  a 
whole  series  of  other  movements  which  gradually 
emerge  out  of  the  incoordinate,  aimless,  partly  im- 
pulsive, partly  reflexive,  and  instinctive  muscular 
contractions  that  he  brings  with  him  into  the  world. 
Thus  even  the  persistent  holding  up  of  the  head,  which 
no  child  accomplishes  before  the  beginning  of  the 
third  month,  is  in  itself  an  expression  of  incipient 
thinking,  though  of  a  very  primitive  sort.  It  proves 
that  the  great  disadvantages  of  the  wabbling  of  the 
head  hither  and  thither,  of  its  falling  forward  or  to 
the  right  or  left  or  backward,  are  perceived.  The 
strength  of  the  muscles  of  the  neck  would  have  sufficed 
to  hold  the  head  up  earlier,  but  no  necessity  existed 
for  it  so  long  as  the  seeing  and  hearing,  the  taking  of 
nourishment,  and  the  manifold  movements  of  the 
limbs,  went  on  well  enough  without  the  participation 
of  the  head  movements.  Now,  the  great  advantage  of 
turnings  of  the  head,  particularly  in  looking  to  the 
right  or  left,  up  and  down,  over  and  under,  is  per- 
ceived ;  and  from  this  time  on  (during  the  sixteenth 
week  in  some  individuals)  the  head  is  held  quite  erect, 


100    DEVELOPMENT  OP   MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

and  this  attitude  is  a  further  language  without  words. 
It  says,  "  I  will." 

Although  not  many  combined  muscular  move- 
ments at  so  early  a  period  can  be  demonstrated  to  be 
signs  of  advancing  intelligence,  as  perhaps  the  shaking 
of  the  head  in  refusal,  the  raising  of  the  upper  part  of 
the  body  without  help,  so  many  the  more  of  them 
there  are  in  the  second  half  year.  In  particular,  the 
pointing  that  is  developed  out  of  seizing,  the  first 
attempts  at  learning  to  sit,  to  stand,  to  walk,  to  avoid 
table  corners  and  other  obstacles,  the  first  efforts  to 
get  up,  to  step  over  a  threshold,  the  carefulness  shown 
in  doing  it,  as  well  as  the  fear  of  falling — these  things, 
occurring  with  many  children  long  before  they  learn 
to  talk,  prove  the  existence  of  deliberation  and  of  a 
speech  without  words. 

So,  too,  we  must  regard  as  a  proof,  and  a  weighty 
one,  of  the  formation  of  associations  of  ideas  previous 
to  articulate  speech,  the  rapid  appropriation  by  the 
little  child  of  many  conventional  looks,  gestures,  and 
occupations  of  adults.  Not  that  special  deliberation 
!  is  required  for  smiling  when  smiled  at,  for  drawing 
down  the  corners  of  the  mouth  when  scolded  at,  for 
crying  when  struck,  for  making  defensive  movements 
when  seized  hold  of ;  what  we  are  concerned  with  is 
rather  a  whole  series  of  complicated  imitative  move- 
ments that  are  multiplied  especially  at  the  end  of  the 
first  year  of  life.  Combing  and  sewing,  brushing  and 


INTELLECT   WITHOUT  LA^GUA^E.          10 1 

wiping,  reading  and  writing,  greeting  and  shaking 
hands,  kissing  and  laughing — all  these  things  are 
more  or  less  adroitly  imitated.  And  although  the 
significance  of  these  movements  is  in  part  not  yet 
understood,  still  the  fact  itself  of  imitation,  without 
any  accompanying  verbal  explanation  on  the  part  of 
the  parents,  and  without  a  single  word  spoken  by  the 
child,  is  surely  a  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  delibera- 
tion that  prepares  the  way  for  verbal  language.  The 
childish  imagination  masters  every  movement  that  can 
serve  as  entertainment.  Complete  understanding  of 
most  of  the  movements,  however,  is  not  gained  by  the 
little  imitative  automaton  except  by  means  of  the 
aid  of  verbal  language.  Meanwhile  there  exists  long 
beforehand  an  imperfect  understanding  of  what  is 
done  by  adults  and  by  other  children,  and  an  un- 
mistakable language  without  words.  By  means  of 
looks  and  a  distinctly  marked  play  of  gesture  in  which 
the  arms  take  an  important  part,  the  will  of  the  child 
is  expressed  before  he  can  speak  with  the  tongue.  By 
many  independent  combinations  in  his  silent  play  the 
child  makes  known  that  he  has  ideas,  that  he  asso- 
ciates them  and  separates  them,  before  he  speaks  a  sin- 
gle word.  And  this  understanding  without  language 
places  him,  even  in  his  first  year  of  life,  at  a  height  far 
above  those  pitiable  patients  who,  through  injury  to 
the  brain,  can  no  longer  use  language  properly,  be- 
cause they  are  confused,  because  they  can  no  longer 


10-2     DEVELOPMENT   OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

hold  their  ideas  in  connection  with  one  another,  and 
can  no  longer  rightly  separate  them  from  one  another. 
Their  language  without  intellect  has  no  significance, 
but  the  child's  intellect  without  language  forms  the 
foundation  of  the  whole  later  mental  life. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   LEARNING   OF   SPEECH. 

UNFORTUNATELY,  no  one  remembers  the  time 
when  he  had  not  command  of  speech.  Although 
every  educated  person  has  labored  for  years  with  great 
zeal  to  learn  his  mother-tongue,  and  to  perfect  him- 
self in  the  use  of  it,  yet  no  one  knows  now  what  his 
feelings  were  before  he  began  this  self-instruction. 
Nor  is  it  possible,  by  the  most  careful  questioning  of 
the  child  who  is  learning  to  speak,  to  get  information 
concerning  his  intellectual  condition ;  inasmuch  as 
when  he  knows  it  he  can  not  communicate  anything 
of  it  in  words,  and  later,  when  he  has  learned  to  talk, 
the  remembrance  of  that  speechless  condition  has 
vanished.  And  yet  what  a  contrast  there  is  between 
the  babe,  speechless,  powerless,  resembling  in  more 
than  one  respect  the  brute,  comparable  now  to  the 
larva,  greedy  for  food,  now  to  the  sluggish,  hibernat- 
ing animal— what  a  contrast  between  him  and  the 
orator  who  uses  words  with  precision,  who  is  never  at 
a  loss  for  the  right  expression,  and  with  no  adventi- 


104    DEVELOPMENT   OF  MIND  IN  THE   CHILD. 

tious  aids,  merely  by  his  speech,  merely  by  means  of 
the  vibration  of  his  vocal  cords,  powerfully  affects  his 
hearers !  I  still  remember  well  the  time  when,  after 
unspeakably  toilsome  but  fruitless  efforts  to  teach  my 
son  one  single  word  only,  I  used  to  be  possessed  almost 
every  day  by  the  thought,  "  And  this  awkward  crea- 
ture, who  can  not  even  blab  a  single  syllable  in  imita- 
tion, like  a  parrot,  is  one  day  to  talk  with  me  as  I  talk 
with  him  !  to  be  perhaps  a  speaker  in  the  Legislature, 
to  learn  in  addition  to  his  mother-tongue  other  lan- 
guages also  !  I  am  curious  to  observe  this  metamor- 
phosis; but  it  is  sometimes  very  doubtful  to  me 
whether  the  child  will  ever  be  able  to  learn  to  speak." 
Other  parents  have  assuredly  like  thoughts ;  and  their 
joy  at  the  first  words  spoken  by  their  children,  if  less 
pronounced  than  their  delight  at  the  first  walking 
erect  without  assistance,  is  so,  probably,  merely  for 
the  reason  that  the  speech  does  not  make  its  appear- 
ance so  suddenly.  We  should  be  in  possession  of 
much  better  material  concerning  the  child's  becoming 
a  human  being,  a  process  completed  by  the  acquire- 
ment of  speech,  if  parents  would  more  often  conscien- 
tiously put  upon  paper  what  they  hear  of  the  first  at- 
tempts at  speaking,  and  would  furnish  us  with  the 
correct  dates.  It  may  be  declared  almost  an  impos- 
sibility that  a  sound  child,  growing  up  among  human 
beings,  should  not  learn  to  speak.  Thus  there  is  no 
lack  of  material  for  observation. 


THE   LEARNING  OF  SPEECH.  1Q5 

So  far  as  I  know,  however,  I  am  the  only  one  who 
has  carried  through  a  series  of  observations  upon  a 
child,  including  almost  every  day  from  the  beginning 
of  his  life  until  the  end  of  his  third  year.  I  strongly 
advise  the  repetition  of  this  labor,  for  it  heightens  the 
parent's  joy  in  the  child,  and  furthers  the  knowledge 
of  mental  development,  even  when  the  observer  is  not 
a  physiologist.  This  study,  from  the  nature  of  the 
case  (let  me  say  as  a  recommendation  of  it),  is  less 
likely  to  put  out  of  tune  an  artistic  temperament,  with 
the  employment  of  analysis  and  taking  to  pieces,  than 
is  any  other  kind  of  scientific  observation,  for  the  rea- 
son that  the  child's  ever-recurring  amusing  attempts 
to  repeat  words  that  are  too  difficult  for  him,  and  in 
general  the  synthetic  character  that  pervades  the  whole 
process  of  the  acquirement  of  speech,  give  a  high  de- 
gree of  gratification.  Think,  too,  of  the  joyous  child- 
face,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  such  observations  as  I 
desire  and  as  I  shall  be  glad  to  make  use  of,  provided 
only  they  are  trustworthy,  do  not  by  any  means  neces- 
sitate unusual  effort ;  especially  as  they  should  never 
be  long  continued  at  any  one  time,  lest  the  child  may 
become  wearied. 

The  main  thing,  rather,  in  studying  the  acquire- 
ment of  speech  is  to  make  very  frequent,  occasional, 
but  always  brief,  observations  of  one  and  the  same 
child,  who  is  in  the  normal  condition.  He  must  not 
know,  even  after  our  first  studies  are  over,  that  we  are 


106    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

interested  in  his  imperfect  utterances;  else  all  too 
easily  is  lost  the  naivete  that  never  returns,  the  child- 
like naturalness  that  precludes  all  dissimulation.  If 
this  happens,  the  natural  course  of  development  of 
the  learning  of  speech  is  disturbed  also. 

The  first  thing  with  which  the  learning  of  speech 
begins  is  not,  as  was  formerly  assumed,  the  first  cry 
of  the  newly  born,  for  this  can  have  no  other  signifi- 
cance than  that  of  a  reflex,  like  sneezing,  for  instance. 
In  fact,  it  often  occurs  that  children  announce  their 
entrance  into  the  world  by  a  sneeze  instead  of  a  cry. 
But  when  strong  impressions  of  various  kinds  have 
alternated  with  one  another — when  feelings  such  as 
hunger,  pain,  cold,  on  the  one  hand,  and  satiety, 
pleasure,  warmth,  on  the  other,  have  been  discrimi- 
nated, then  crying  acquires  a  speech-significance,  and 
the  mood  of  the  child  may  be  perceived  through  the 
variations  in  his  voice.  In  pain  the  tone  is  higher 
than  in  hunger — often  a  piercing  tone;  in  the  joy- 
ous "  crowing,"  in  laughing,  it  is  much  louder  and 
of  quite  different  timbre  than  in  whimpering  on  ac- 
count of  cold  or  wet.  But  all  loud  utterances  of  this 
sort  that  express  bodily,  and  very  soon  also  mental, 
states,  are  the  farthest  possible  from  being  portions 
of  an  articulate  language ;  rather  are  they  completely 
analogous  to  the  language  of  animals.  Nor  have  those 
syllables  the  least  claim  to  significance  as  language 
which  are  heard  sometimes  as  early  as  the  seventh  or 


THE  LEARNING  OP  SPEECH.  1Q7 

eighth  week,  but  which  have  not  been  observed  hith- 
erto with  sufficient  accuracy  as  to  the  date  of  their 
first  appearance :  as  Z>a,  ma,  am,  ab,  go,  and  also  ro. 
These  are  produced,  just  as  are  the  later  sounds,  which 
can  not  be  in  any  way  written  down,  in  the  babbling 
monologues  of  'the  infant,  by  the  movements  of  the 
vocal  muscles,  often  through  pure  accident ;  and  they 
have  at  the  beginning  no  more  psychogenetic  signifi- 
cance than  snoring,  or  the  irregular,  gradually  co- 
ordinated movements  of  the  arms  and  legs  or  of  the 
facial  muscles.  The  production  of  sounds,  and  of 
simple,  meaningless  syllables  made  up  of  sounds,  has 
for  the  child,  however,  an  advantage  over  these  mus- 
cular movements  because  it  has  an  acoustic  effect. 
The  ear  of  the  crying  and  babbling  babe  receives 
the  sounds  produced  by  the  larynx  and  the  oral 
cavity,  so  that  these  become  the  source  of  a  new 
pleasure.  Therefore  the  child  repeats,  with  a  per- 
sistence often  intolerable  to  the  adult,  the  same  syl- 
lable, the  same  cry. 

These  utterances  even  in  the  third  quarter  of  the 
first  year  are  still  almost  wholly  devoid  of  significance 
as  language ;  but  in  the  fourth  quarter  the  character 
of  them  very  often  changes,  and  we  may  perceive  that 
sounds  uttered  are  influenced  by  the  sounds  heard  from 
other  persons,  by  words.  With  this  is  reached  the 
critical  point  in  the  learning  of  language.  That  point 
is  passed  on  the  day  when  the  child  for  the  first  time 


108    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

uses  a  word  of  verbal  language,  or  of  the  nurse's  jargon, 
independently  and  correctly. 

If  we  consider  what  is  required  for  all  this,  and 
therefore  for  speech  in  general,  it  appears  that  there 
must  be,  first,  an  open  ear,  0,  to  receive  and  conduct 
the  sounds  heard ;  a  permeable  impress- 
D  ive  path,  as  it  is  most  briefly  termed,  be- 

M  MJL  K  ginning  with  the  auditory  nerves,  0  K. 
o  The  sound-impressions  arriving  at  a  cer- 
tain place  in  the  brain,  an  acoustic  center, 
or  storehouse  of  sound-images,  K,  must  then  in  the 
form  of  nerve  excitement,  quite  probably  through  vi- 
brations, come,  through  intercentral  connecting  fibers, 
to  a  part  of  the  surface  of  the  cerebrum  situated  far- 
ther forward,  D,  where  ideas  are  formed  out  of  them, 
and  therefore  where  what  is  heard  is  understood. 
From  here,  partly  also  directly  from  the  center  for 
sound-images,  K,  go  fibers  to  the  before-mentioned 
Broca's  center  in  the  frontal  brain,  M,  where  the  ideas 
are  transformed  into  motor  impulses  for  the  laryngeal 
muscles  by  the  expansion  and  contraction  of  the 
glottis,  by  means  of  the  vocal  cords,  and  for  the 
lingual  and  labial  muscles,  etc.  This  place  is  the 
center  that  is  often  disturbed  by  attacks  of  apoplexy, 
and  by  the  lesion  or  injury  of  which,  through  the 
rupture,  it  may  be,  of  a  small  blood-vessel,  language 
may  be  momentarily  lost  in  part,  and  is  in  many  cases 
wholly  lost.  In  the  first  event  the  consequence  is 


THE  LEARNING  OF  SPEECH.  1Q9 

dysphasia ;  in  the  second,  aphasia.  This  speech  cen- 
ter is  not  developed  in  the  child,  and  if  children  grew 
up  isolated  from  all  human  intercourse,  it  would  not 
develop  any  more  than  would  the  other  cerebral  cen- 
ters and  their  connecting  fibers  necessary  for  speech. 

He  who  has  not  learned  to  write  has  no  writing 
center  in  his  brain.  And  as  the  child  at  a  later  time 
learns  to  write  by  imitating  a  copy,  so  in  like  manner 
he  learns  after  the  lapse  of  the  first  year  to  speak  by 
imitating  sounds  heard.  Imitation  is  the  chief  thing 
in  all  learning  to  speak,  no  matter  whether  the  signs 
that  constitute  the  language  are  visible,  tactual,  or 
audible  signs.  The  word,  too,  is  ultimately  a  symbol 
produced  by  feeling  (or  touching)  with  the  tongue  in 
the  mouth,  like  gesticulation  with  the  hands  and  the 
play  of  feature. 

And  although  philologists  may  still  dispute  much 
over  the  possibility  of  the  origin  of  language  from 
other  sources,  nevertheless  sound  imitation  is  and 
remains  without  doubt  the  first  and  most  important 
factor  in  the  learning  of  language  by  the  individual. 
No  arrogant  or  even  scornful  rejection  of  the  ono- 
matopoetic  theory,  such  as  Max  Miiller  announces  by 
the  term  "  bow-wow  theory,"  no  learned  consideration 
of  Sanskrit  roots,  no  result  of  comparative  philology, 
can  shake  the  fact  which  everybody  may  confirm 
in  the  case  of  his  own  children  if  he  only  observes 
carefully  and  diligently,  that  through  the  repetition 


HO    DEVELOPMENT   OF   MIND  IN   THE  CHILD. 

of  sounds  heard  the  human  being  comes  to  associate 
these  arbitrarily  with  certain  definite  ideas,  in  the  con- 
nection in  which  they  have  been  heard. 

It  is  remarkable  enough  that  the  vibrations  of  the 
tympanum  produced,  in  hearing,  by  the  waves  of 
sound,  as  early  as  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  life, 
and  often  much  earlier,  are  transferred  with  the 
greatest  accuracy  to  the  vocal  cords  of  the  child  that 
hears.  A  tone  heard  is  sung  correctly,  a  sound  heard 
is  repeated  accurately  with  the  same  timbre,  in  the 
same  pitch  and  about  the  same  force ;  and  yet  the 
way,  the  path,  must  be  open  all  through :  from  the 
vibrating  tympanum  through  the  auditory  ossicles,  the 
oval  aperture,  the  fluid  of  the  labyrinth,  the  cochlea, 
the  auditory  nerves,  the  auditory  nerve  ganglia,  the 
fibers  connecting  with  the  cerebrum,  the  auditory 
spheres,  and  the  motor  centers  of  the  cerebral  cortex, 
as  well  as  the  motor  nerves  for  the  laryngeal  muscles. 
First,  sound-vibrations,  hence  condensation  and  rare- 
faction of  the  air :  then,  vibrations  of  solid  bodies,  the 
tympanum  and  the  auditory  ossicles;  next,  vibrations 
of  a  fluid  and  of  the  elastic  ends  of,  the  auditory 
nerves  in  the  labyrinth ;  after  this,  nerve  excitement ; 
finally,  transformation  of  this  nerve  excitement  into 
the  sensation  of  sound.  Out  of  this  arises  the  idea 
of  tone,  and  then  the  will  to  reproduce  the  content  of 
it;  following  this,  motor  command  in  the  form  of 
centrifugal  nerve  excitement,  muscular  contraction, 


THE  LEARNING   OF  SPEECH. 

tension  of  vocal  cords,  contraction  of  the  glottis,  ex- 
halation— lo  !  the  tone  that  had  been  heard !  What 
a  chain  of  complicated  processes,  which  must  all  take 
place  in  a  perfectly  definite  succession,  in  order  to  the 
existence  of  a  phenomenon  apparently  so  simple  as 
the  imitation  of  a  sound  heard,  an  A !  Yet  so  it  is ; 
and  if  a  single  link  in  this  long  chain  is  wanting 
— if  the  internal  ear  is  injured,  or  if  the  auditory 
nerve  does  not  conduct,  or  if  the  cerebrum  declines 
its  office,  or  the  motor  nerves  of  the  laryngeal  muscles, 
or  if  these  muscles  themselves  are  paralyzed — then 
the  child  does  not  learn  to  speak.  On  a  very  slight 
thread  hangs  the  whole  weight  of  the  higher  intel- 
lectual activity! 

Of  course,  the  recognition  of  this  important  fact 
does  not  by  any  means  imply  that  nothing  further 
is  requisite  for  learning  to  speak  than  that  these 
impressive  and  conducting  paths  should  perform  their 
normal  function.  But  it  is  certain — and  this  is  the 
chief  point — that  without  this  whole  apparatus  ar- 
ticulate speech  has  never  been  acquired,  either  in 
primeval  times  by  any  human  being  previously  lack- 
ing speech,  or  by  the  ancestor  of  such  a  one,  a  being 
nearer  akin  to  the  brute ;  or  in  our  own  days  by  an 
infant,  who  likewise  stands  nearer  to  the  brute  than 
to  the  civilized  man,  in  regard  to  his  inability  to 
speak.  The  further  thing  that  is  indispensable  is 
something  purely  mental,  viz.,  the  association  of  a 


112    DEVELOPMENT  OF   MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

sound,  acquired  by  imitation  and  self -produced,  with 
the  experience  gained  in  the  perception  of  the  sound. 
Experience  brings  to  ripeness  a  certain  idea.  Now,  if 
the  sound  which  has  always  occurred  along  with  the 
idea  is  heard  by  itself,  that  experience  emerges  anew 
out  of  the  memory-image,  and  occasions  on  its  part 
the  production,  which  is  a  reproduction,  of  the  same 
sound :  so  that  when  this  sound  is  uttered  we  know 
that  the  child  has  this  or  that  idea. 

This  will  be  made  plain-  by  an  example.  My  little 
son  touches  with  his  hand  the  hot  stove,  draws  back 
the  hand  quickly,  and  speaks  the  single  word  "  Hot," 
very  loud  and  distinctly.  While  he  is  doing  this  his 
countenance  takes  on  an  expression  that  one  might 
describe  by  saying  that  his  face  was  "  lighted  up." 
This  was  the  first  word  of  proper  language  that  he 
used  spontaneously  with  perfect  correctness.  The 
sound-impression  "  hot  "  had  often  penetrated  his  ear, 
and  always  in  connection  with  the  idea  of  a  high 
temperature.  Now  the  child  gets  for  himself  the 
experience  that  an  object  has  an  unexpectedly  high 
temperature ;  he  receives  the  idea  of  heat,  and  this 
idea  calls  up  the  acoustic  memory-image  "  hot."  Pre- 
viously, the  words  spoken  in  his  hearing,  among  them 
this  one,  had  been  merely  "  parroted  "  without  mean- 
ing, and  often  in  mutilated  form ;  previously,  too,  the 
feeling  of  heat,  or  the  pain  felt  on  grasping  objects 
too  hot,  had  come,  but  without  the  knowledge  of 


THE  LEARNING  OF  SPEECH.  H3 

the  word  "hot."  JSTow  the  association  of  the  two 
is  accomplished,  and  only  in  this  way — that  some 
person,  having  burned  himself  or  having  taken  hold  of 
the  kettle,  had  said  in  the  presence  of  the  child,  "  That 
is  too  hot." 

In  this  way  the  child  learns  to  know  a  great  num- 
ber of  words  of  his  future  language,  and  learns  at  the 
same  time  to  give  names  to  his  sensations,  feelings, 
perceptions,  ideas.  Yet  this  is  not  the  sole  way  that 
leads  to  this  goal.  A  considerable  number  of  words 
are  at  first  used  by  him  wrongly  or  in  mutilated  form, 
with  reduplications  and  with  abbreviations,  in  igno- 
rance of  the  true  meaning.  The  right  meaning  be- 
comes clear  to  him  -only  after  repeated  wrong  use  of 
the  words.  How  often  does  the  child  that  is  learning 
to  talk  remind  us  of  the  illiterate  person,  who  perverts 
words  and  uses  them  in  a  wrong  sense,  saying  "  coni- 
fer "  for  "  corypheus,"  "  abrupt "  for  "  absurd,"  or 
"  spiritual  "  instead  of  "  spirituous  "  liquors. 

A  third  factor  in  the  learning  of  speech  is  of  much 
less  importance — the  impressing  of  idea  and  word  al- 
most simultaneously,  as  when  an  animal  is  both  seen 
and  heard.  Wholly  original  word-formation  of  this 
sort — pure  onomatopoeia,  that  is — is  a  thing  not  easy 
to  observe.  Children  for  the  most  part  name  animals, 
which  they  generally  name  by  the  sound,  as  "moo- 
moo,"  "  bow-wow,"  "  cock-a-doodle-doo,"  "  quack,"  not 
spontaneously,  but  only  after  they  have  learned  the 


114:    DEVELOPMENT  OP  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

use  of  other  words,  and  have  often  heard  these  desig- 
nations employed  by  other  persons.  As  to  the  expres- 
sion "peep-peep"  for  a  bird,  however,  I  can  positively 
affirm  that  it  is  a  spontaneous  invention  of  a  child. 
Other  imitations  of  voices  of  animals,  and  of  squeak- 
ing, humming,  snarling,  whistling  noises,  are  mostly 
given  to  children  early  in  words  frequently  uttered 
before  them ;  such  words  are  not  kept  long  in  use  be- 
cause they  are  individual  in  their  character.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  bad  thing  connected  with  the  learning 
of  speech  is  this :  that  the  parents,  and  still  more  the 
nurses  and  like  persons,  purposely  talk  with  the  child 
not  in  the  ordinary  language  but  in  so-called  "  baby- 
talk."  In  this,  one  does  not  speak  in  the  first  or  the 
second  person,  does  not  say  "  I "  or  "  you  " ;  but  the 
aunt,  in  speaking  of  herself,  says  "  auntie  "  instead  of 
"  I " ;  the  child  is  put  into  the  third  person.  The 
strangest  malformations,  particularly  of  nouns,  are 
regularly  preferred;  e.  g.,  "Huddup"  (Hotto)  for 
horse,  "  mimi "  for  milk,  "  by-by  "  for  bed.  Consistent 
with  this  but  wholly  needless,  and  in  reality  harmful, 
the  members  of  the  family  seize  on  certain  syllables 
that  frequently  recur  in  the  babbling  monologues  of 
the  child,  and  say  them  over  again  and  again,  in  one 
form  or  another,  to  the  child,  in  connection  with 
closely  associated  ideas.  By  so  doing  they  make  diffi- 
cult for  the  child  a  natural  development,  for  he  must 
by  and  by  wean  himself  from  all  this;  that  which 


THE  LEARNING  OP  SPEECH.  H5 

at  first  seemed  amusing,  childishly  naive,  and  even 
clever,  but  is  in  reality  artificial  and  affected,  is  later 
condemned  as  naughtiness,  is  visited  with  punishment, 
and  must  at  all  events  be  got  rid  of.  To  what  pur- 
pose is  this  dead  weight?  Children  should  never,  at 
the  expense  of  their  own  natural  development,  be- 
come entertaining  playthings  to  pass  away  the  time 
for  adults. 

It  is  the  same  with  provincialisms  and  improper 
interjections,  even  with  individual  peculiarities  of  ex- 
pression, with  accent,  sometimes  with  cadence.  All 
this  is  by  many  children  imitated  with  great  precision. 
It  is  not  noticed,  and  by  and  by  we  wonder  at  the 
defective,  indistinct,  disagreeable  enunciation  of  chil- 
dren. Even  when  there  is  no  intention  on  the  part 
of  the  adult  members  of  the  family  of  imparting  to 
the  child  their  peculiarities  of  speech,  the  repetition 
of  such  peculiarities  becomes  to  the  children  a  habit 
merely  through  hearing.  It  is  supposed  that  they 
will  at  a  later  period  break  themselves  of  these,  but 
they  retain  them  usually  for  life.  Here  must  not  be 
forgotten  what  has  been  spoken  of  as  decisive  in  re- 
gard to  the  earliest  education  in  general — the  suggest- 
ive effect  of  the  conduct  of  the  mother.  Every  look, 
every  word,  many  movements  of  the  limbs,  are,  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  the  mother  or  nurse,  suggestions 
to  the  child — i.  e.,  they  determine  his  mental  repre- 
sentation, and  later  his  action.  And  particularly  to 


HO    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

be  considered  in  the  matter  of  learning  to  speak  is  the 
lack  of  understanding  of  what  is  heard  and  seen.  A 
fundamental  axiom  of  the  whole  doctrine  of  psycho- 
genesis  is,  that  all  children  at  the  time  of  learning  to 
speak  understand,  indeed,  many  more  words  than 
they  can  themselves  utter;  but  they  also  say  many 
words  "  mechanically  "  which  they  do  not  understand, 
and  with  which  they  do  not  associate  the  right  mean- 
ing until  later,  and  then  mostly  in  consequence  of 
disagreeable  experiences  from  wrong  applications  of 
them,  but  sometimes  in  consequence  of  pleasurable 
feelings  from  the  right  application. 

If  the  little  child's  defects  of  speech  from  the  be- 
ginning of  his  life  to  somewhere  about  the  fifth  year 
are  compared,  with  reference  to  the  hearing  and  un- 
derstanding of  what  is  said  to  him  as  well  as  with  refer- 
ence to  pronunciation  and  independent  use  of  articu- 
late sounds,  syllables,  and  words  for  the  expression  of 
his  own  ideas — if  his  defects  are  compared  with  those 
that  appear  in  later  life,  a  surprising  agreement  is 
found.  When  an  adult,  in  consequence  of  a  stroke  of 
apoplexy,  lesion,  or  any  cerebral  disease,  disorder  of 
hearing,  derangement  of  the  functions  of  the  larynx 
or  of  the  tongue,  lips,  or  even  teeth,  is  deprived  of  the 
right  use  of  speech,  then  the  disturbances  of  speech, 
which  have  been  carefully  observed  by  various  clini- 
cists,  are  not  merely  somewhat  similar  in  general,  but 
are  identical  with  those  of  the  child  just  learning  to 


THE  LEARNING  OF  SPEECH. 

speak.  The  adult  no  longer  speaks  correctly,  and  no 
longer  understands  speech  correctly,  because  his  speech 
mechanism  is  no  longer  normally  constructed.  The 
child,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  yet  speak  correctly, 
and  does  not  understand  speech  correctly,  because  his 
small  speech  apparatus  is  not  yet  fully  developed  in 
all  its  parts.  In  both  cases  the  cerebral  convolution 
concerned  is  not  capable  of  its  function.  In  the  one, 
the  watch  does  not  go,  because  it  is  broken  and  there- 
fore can  no  longer  be  wound  up :  in  the  other,  it  does 
not  go,  and  can  not  be  wound  up,  because  it  is  not 
finished.  It  should  be  noted  here  that  every  normal 
infant  understands  many  of  the  sound-impressions  of 
animate  nature  and  of  inanimate  objects  at  a  time 
when  he  can  reproduce  by  imitation  hardly  anything 
of  it.  He  never  develops  perfectly  without  inter- 
course with  adults,  without  prolonged  practice  in 
guessing  at  the  meaning  of  acoustic  impressions ;  and 
this  very  thing  proves  conclusively  the  importance  of 
this  practice  for  intellectual  development  in  general, 
and  for  the  development  of  the  brain  in  particular. 

The  guessing  or  divining  of  the  meaning  is  far 
more  a  matter  of  understanding  the  accompanying 
gestures  and  looks  than  of  understanding  the  spoken 
explanations.  On  the  other  hand,  every  normal  child, 
of  his  own  accord,  before  he  is  able  to  imitate  sylla- 
bles, forms  correctly  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  sounds  that 

occur  in  his  future  speech,  and  many  others  besides 
10 


118    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

these ;  he  takes  pleasure  in  making  sounds  which  will 
not  be  used  at  a  later  period,  and  will  be  lost.  There 
is  a  lavish  abundance  of  sounds  of  the  most  manifold 
character.  Out  of  these  a  selection  comes  to  be  made, 
an  unconscious  selection,  determined  by  the  language 
the  child  hears  spoken  by  those  about  him.  Those 
sounds  which  prove  to  be  of  advantage  in  understand- 
ing remain  in  use ;  those  which  are  of  no  advantage 
fade  out,  as  it  were,  or  fall  away  like  dead  leaves,  just 
as  do  the  useless  crowing,  squealing,  cooing,  grunting, 
whimpering,  and  all  the  numerous  inarticulate  sounds 
we  have  no  names  for  that  are  made  by  the  child  in 
the  first  few  months. 

But  this  decline  in  the  child's  stock  of  sounds  does 
not  by  any  means  take  place  in  a  definite  order  of  suc- 
cession any  more  than  the  acquirement  of  the  sounds 
of  language  does,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  sounds 
that  appear  in  all  human  beings  in  the  same  order. 
The  different  languages  are  too  unlike,  and  the  influ- 
ences of  the  members  of  the  family  upon  children, 
even  in  the  same  nation,  are  too  unlike  for  it  to  be 
possible  that  the  preference  of  certain  definite  sounds 
to  all  other  sounds  should  be  repeated  everywhere  in  a 
like  order  of  succession.  The  a,  p,  and  m  sounds  only, 
in  which  the  tongue  remains  motionless  in  the  mouth, 
are  found  in  all  peoples  as  the  first  sounds  to  be  ut- 
tered distinctly ;  and  by  combination,  ma,  pa,  am,  ab, 
ama,  papa,  mama,  are  the  first  sounds  to  designate 


THE  LEARNING  OP  SPEECH.  H9 

that  which  appeases  the  disagreeable  feeling  of  hun- 
'ger,  viz.,  food,  and  hence  milk,  or  the  source  of  milk, 
the  breast,  and  likewise  the  mother  herself.  But  this 
application  is  not  made  by  the  child  first,  but  by  the 
mother,  who  repeats  the  sounds  made  by  the  child — 
i.  e.,  she  imitates  the  child's  utterance,  and  he  then 
imitates  hers. 

The  difference  in  individuals  is  very  great  also  in 
the  later  time  of  the  child's  learning  of  language, 
when  his  vocabulary  increases  gradually  and  ever  more 
and  more  rapidly.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  many 
children  are  fond  of  babbling  senselessly  in  monkey 
fashion  whatever  sounds  they  happen  to  hear,  while 
other  children  try  in  a  more  thoughtful  manner 
silently  to  understand  what  they  hear,  the  inanimate, 
dumb  environment  of  the  child  determines  his  use  of 
some  words,  particularly  of  nouns.  A  child  growing 
up  in  a  flat  region  of  country  will  not  be  likely  to  see 
much  of  mountains  and  glaciers,  valleys  and  preci- 
pices ;  the  son  of  a  farmer  will  much  sooner  name  cor- 
rectly all  that  belongs  to  cow-house  and  barn  than 
will  the  child  of  a  fisherman,  for  whom,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  easy  to  name  all  parts  of  the  boat  even  be- 
fore he  can  speak  correctly  in  other  respects. 

In  reply  to  repeated  questions  concerning  the  num- 
ber of  words  mastered  by  a  child  at  the  end  of  his 
second  year — i.  e.,  the  words  he  uses  independently — 
I  have  received  from  various  mothers,  who  have  ob- 


120    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

served  carefully,  lists  which  show  that  the  vocabularies 
of  nine  children  just  two  years  old — eight  girls  and 
one  boy — comprise,  in  the  case  of  the  smallest  num- 
ber of  words,  173,  and  of  the  largest,  1,121  words. 
But  these  extremes  owe  their  great  variation  probably 
far  more  to  the  difference  in  the  way  of  observing 
than  to  the  actual  difference  in  the  children ;  for  in 
the  one  case  the  observer  was  very  strict  in  excluding 
all  doubtful  expressions,  while  in  the  other  case  the 
words  of  a  dictionary  were  marked,  and  the  child  was 
asked  a  question  in  the  answer  to  which  he  might 
employ  the  word  under  consideration.  In  this  latter 
case  suggestion  has  probably  exerted  a  strong  influ- 
ence to  increase  the  number  of  words.  The  remain- 
ing seven  children  had  each  a  vocabulary  of  four  to 
five  hundred  words.  In  a  single  case  observed  by  me, 
strangely  enough  not  fifty  words  were  completely  mas- 
tered in  the  twenty-fourth  month;  but  we  can  not 
£rom  this  infer  anything  abnormal  in  regard  to  a 
child.  A  great  many  more  such  collections  of  words 
must  be  made  and  compared,  and  much  more  accurate 
data  must  be  at  our  disposal  concerning  the  times  at 
which  the  acquirement  of  words  takes  place,  before 
we  can  draw  definite  conclusions  in  this  department, 
which  until  recently  has  received  no  consideration.  I 
am  told  that  I  did  not  myself  learn  to  speak  until 
toward  the  close  of  my  third  year ;  and  the  child  of 
whom  I  said  just  now  that  he  had  not  at  the  end  of 


THE  LEARNING  OF  SPEECH.  121 

his  second  year  fifty  words  at  his  command  is  my 
own  son ;  he,  however,  very  soon  made  up  his  defi- 
ciency. In  this  matter  we  may  naturally  think  of 
hereditary  peculiarities,  but,  on  the  whole,  heredity  is 
at  all  events  of  slight  importance  in  regard  to  the 
learning  of  speech.  For  experience  demonstrates  that 
every  child  can,  by  virtue  of  the  extraordinary  plas- 
ticity of  his  entire  apparatus  of  speech,  if  he  is  re- 
moved early  from  his  parents,  learn  to  master  any 
language  whatever  instead  of  his  mother  tongue,  and 
just  as  perfectly  as  that. 

A  wonderful  thing  it  seems,  to  be  sure,  that  every 
human  being  that  comes  into  the  world  in  sound  con- 
dition shows  no  trace  at  first  of  articulate  speech,  and 
yet  after  a  year's  time  has  in  part  acquired  this  ex- 
tremely complex  function.  For  he  can  acquire  it 
only  through  intercourse  with  such  as  already  enjoy 
the  gift  of  speech  and  who  serve  as  models  for  his 
imitation ;  while  if  we  go  back  farther  and  farther 
in  the  history  of  mankind,  we  come  at  last  to  gen- 
erations who  had  no  such  models.  Every  tradition 
— and  language  is  a  tradition — must  at  some  time 
have  had  a  beginning ;  but  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
beginning  of  this,  the  most  important  of  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  human  race,  who  would  care  to  make 
positive  assertions?  One  thing  is  certain:  that  imi- 
tation must  have  been  previously  developed.  The 
imitation  of  natural'sounds  must  in  any  case  be  con- 


122    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

sidered  as  an  essential  element.  A  second  element  is 
the  simultaneous  utterance  of  sounds  by  a  number  of 
men  engaged  in  the  same  kind  of  bodily  labor  (Max 
Miiller) :  the  sounds  thus  produced  are  afterward 
imitated  by  other  persons.  A  third  constituent  is  the 
explosive,  voiced  expiration  of  breath  under  stress  of 
pain  or  of  any  violent  emotion.  All  these  must  have 
co-operated  to  produce  language.  Imitation  would 
naturally  lead  to  the  formation  of  root- words.  Out 
of  these,  by  means  of  the  combination  of  words  and 
the  extended  differentiation  of  them,  has  been  devel- 
oped at  length  the  vast  number  of  languages  now 
spread  over  the  globe  and  acquired  by  children  through 
imitation  of  the  speech  of  their  kindred. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   FORMATION   OF   HIGHER   IDEAS. 

THE  mere  appropriation  of  words  does  not  carry 
the  development  of  thinking  on  the  part  of  the  child 
beyond  the  primitive  state  that  existed  before.  Nor 
does  the  loose  juxtaposition  of  the  first  nouns  and 
adjectives  in  a  sentence  prove  anything  as  yet  in 
regard  to  the  formation  of  higher  ideas,  of  abstrac- 
tions. For  example,  when  the  child  who  has  ac- 
cidentally pushed  off  his  cup,  filled  with  milk,  from 
the  edge  of  the  table,  tells  his  mother  of  it  in  the 
words,  "Mik-mik — tarpet — papa — fie!"  he  does  not 
in  this  rise  above  the  standpoint  of  a  person  that  is 
all  through  life  feeble-minded,  who  would  in  like 
manner  say :  "  [The]  milk  [ran  down  on  the]  carpet ; 
[then  came]  papa  [and  said]  '  Fie  ! ' '  The  omission 
of  a  great  many  words,  particularly  of  the  articles, 
conjunctions  and  prepositions,  but  also  of  verbs  and 
pronouns,  is  characteristic  for  this  first  period  of  the 
forming  of  sentences.  But  in  truth  the  intelligent 
child  has  before  this  strung  together  these  same  ideas, 


124:    DEVELOPMENT  OP  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

and  like  the  uninstructed  deaf-mute  has  expressed 
them  by  various  inarticulate  sounds,  as  is  the  case 
with  many  brute  animals  also.  The  difference  is 
rather  in  the  greater  clearness  of  the  manner  of  desig- 
nating the  ideas  than  in  anything  else.  When  a  child 
has  acquired  words  of  his  mother-tongue  and  begins 
to  express  his  own  thoughts  in  them,  then  he  can  bet- 
ter discriminate  between  these  thoughts.  Language 
is  an  important  auxiliary  to  him  in  separating  indi- 
vidual qualities  and  holding  them  permanently  apart 
in  his  mind.  It  lightens  the  task  of  arranging  and 
systematizing  his  stock  of  thoughts,  which  is  daily 
increasing  in  extent. 

Yet  even  with  this  verbal  announcement  of  his 
own  sensations,  perceptions,  and  ideas  of  tangible, 
visible  objects,  he  has  not  attained,  by  any  means,  an 
advance  in  the  formation  of  higher  ideas  or  concepts. 
For  this  advance  he  has  need  of  two  more  intellectual 
processes,  distinct  though  intimately  connected  with 
each  other — memory  and  association. 

The  memory  for  words,  and  that  for  objects,  are 
by  no  means  the  same.  A  man  may  have  in  his  head, 
as  is  proved  in  the  case  of  many  linguists,  twenty 
thousand,  or  even  thirty  thousand  words — very  likely 
more  than  double  that  number — without  being  able  to 
represent  to  himself  at  once  that  which  each  word 
signifies.  And  vice  versa,  experienced  naturalists  can 
represent  to  themselves  many  thousands  of  different 


THE  FORMATION  OF  HIGHER  IDEAS.       125 

microscopic  forms  one  after  the  other  without  being 
able  to  designate  their  differences  immediately  in 
words  so  as  to  make  these  clear  to  other  persons.  But 
after  the  first  baptism  that  comes  with  the  grasping 
of  objects  with  the  hands,  the  thing  and  the  word 
hold  fast  to  each  other,  so  that  when  the  child  hears 
the  sound-impression  of  the  word,  he  has  immediately 
the  sensuous  impression  of  the  thing  denoted  by  the 
sound — has  this  partly  in  reality,  partly  in  his  im- 
agination. If  the  thing  is  visible  and  tangible,  the 
impression  has,  as  it  were,  a  higher  degree  of  reality 
through  the  association  of  an  object,  that  has  been 
both  seen  and  felt,  with  the  sound  that  has  been  heard. 

I  long  ago  made  the  statement  that  the  child's 
memory  in  any  single  department  of  sense  is  weak, 
and  that  during  the  period  when  he  can  not  yet  speak 
he  remembers  far  more  easily  in  case  of  the  combina- 
tion of  two  impressions  belonging  to  two  different 
senses  than  when  limited  to  one  sense.  A  recent 
observer — Prof.  Mark  Baldwin,  of  Toronto — has,  how- 
ever, furnished  a  particularly  convincing  proof  that 
the  memory  is  favored  by  such  a  combination  of  mem- 
ory-images from  two  departments  of  sense. 

The  nurse  of  a  child  six  and  a  half  years  old,  with 
whom  the  child  had  lived  for  five  months,  left  it  for 
three  weeks,  and  was  instructed  upon  her  return,  first 
(I),  to  appear  in  her  ordinary  dress  but  without  speak- 
ing; then  (II),  to  speak  in  her  ordinary  manner  with- 


126    DEVELOPMENT  OP  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

out  being  seen;  finally  (III),  to  appear  and  sing  a 
song  that  the  child  had  not  heard  during  the  three 
weeks  of  the  nurse's  absence.  At  (I)  the  child  stared 
with  a  questioning  look  but  gave  no  sign  of  recogni- 
tion, and  no  sign,  to  be  sure,  of  fear  or  antipathy  as  at 
the  sight  of  a  stranger.  At  (II)  there  was  no  recogni- 
tion; the  voice,  therefore,  did  not  suffice.  At  (III) 
the  recognition  was  complete.  Accordingly,  the  visual 
memory-image  (the  face)  must  have  strengthened 
the  auditory  memory-image  (the  melody),  and  this 
strengthening  may  well  have  been  a  reciprocal  one. 

I  know  for  a  certainty  that  in  recognizing  persons 
not  seen  for  a  long  time,  in  my  own  case  and  in  that 
of  many  others,  the  hearing  of  the  voice  often  first  re- 
moves the  doubt  felt  on  seeing  the  face,  and  vice  versa. 
Here  we  have  a  true  association  with  which  language 
has  nothing  to  do.  But  if  language  enough  has  been 
acquired  (by  a  child)  so  that  the  word  heard  awakens 
the  remembrance  of  the  speech,  then  a  sufficient  prep- 
aration has  been  attained  to  make  possible,  at  the 
perception  of  new  things,  the  remembrance  of  the 
word  that  had  designated  a  similar  thing  before. 
Thus  the  word  awakens  the  remembrance  of  an  ear- 
lier experience;  and  a  new  experience  of  a  similar 
kind,  or  even  with  one  similar  characteristic,  awakens 
the  remembrance  of  the  word  once  earlier  associated 
with  this.  If  this  association  of  remembrances  with 
present  impressions  is  just  as  reciprocal  as  in  the  ex- 


THE  FORMATION  OF  HIGHER  IDEAS.       127 

ample  adduced  from  the  experience  of  a  child  without 
speech — and  there  is  reason  enough  for  assuming  this 
— then  we  have  the  conditions  for  the  formation  of 
higher  ideas  that  do  not  correspond  to  previous  expe- 
riences. For  when  the  new  image  does  not  corre- 
spond to  the  one  previously  impressed,  and  hence  the 
old  word  does  not  clothe  itself  with  the  new  impres- 
sion, then  one  is  constrained  to  designate  the  differ- 
ence ;  and  this  difference  is  always  something  abstract. 

All  ideas  are  either  individual  ideas,  i.  e.,  sense- 
percepts,  or  general  ideas,  i.  e.,  concepts.  In  the 
child  all  words,  even  if  formed  only  by  onomatopoeia, 
are  naturally  very  poorly  defined,  very  comprehensive, 
hence  scanty  in  content  and  vague ;  because  the  child 
has  but  few  words  at  his  disposal,  and  is  obliged  to  ex- 
press with  these  few  vocables  an  overwhelming  multi- 
tude of  sense-impressions  and  their  consequences  in 
himself. 

With  the  adult,  the  trained  thinker,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  concepts  have  a  small  extent  and  are  sharp- 
ly defined,  and  are  in  so  far  of  more  value — i.  e.,  they 
have  a  more  definite  content  and  are  clear.  When  a 
child  who  has  observed  that  two  callers,  coining  in 
one  after  the  other,  cleared  their  throats  vigorously, 
founds  upon  this  twofold  experience  the  generaliza- 
tion that  all  men  clear  their  throats  when  entering  a 
room,  he  does  not  indeed  proceed  upon  a  false  prin- 
ciple, but  he  makes  a  false  application  of  a  true  prin- 


128    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

ciple.  It  is  thus  that  the  young  naturalist,  not  yet 
sufficiently  guarded  by  experience  and  critical  judg- 
ment, makes  the  childish  error  of  inferring  from  the 
sporadic  occurrence  of  iodine  in  wood  the  universal 
diffusion  of  this  metalloid  in  the  vegetable  kingdom ; 
as  if  from  a  few  individual  instances  could  be  deduced 
propositions  of  universal  validity,  or  as  if  the  law  that 
holds  good  of  great  numbers  of  instances  could  be  ap- 
plied to  numbers  not  great.  The  derivation  of  new 
truths  by  induction  from  too  small  a  number  of  indi- 
vidual instances,  or  the  generalizing  of  particular  per- 
ceptions that  offer  certain  resemblances  but  are  few  in 
number,  forms  all  through  childhood  the  chief  factor 
in  the  production  of  higher  concepts. 

The  truth  of  this  statement  may  be  easily  illus- 
trated by  daily  examples  from  the  life  of  any  child. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  so  easy  to  understand  that 
the  abstract  idea  is  arrived  at  through  the  above-men- 
tioned difference  between  a  new  impression  and  an 
old  memory-image  of  a  similar  impression,  when  both 
are  retained  in  the  memory  with  the  same  word,  for 
lack  of  a  proper  word ;  indeed,  the  knowledge  that  this 
is  the  fact  I  believe  to  be  new.  Every  time  a  new 
word  is  formed  abstraction  is  involved ;  for  the  very 
necessity  of  designating  a  new  animal,  a  new  plant, 
by  a  special  expression,  in  order  to  keep  it  separate  in 
the  remembrance  from  others  similar  to  it,  presup- 
poses a  comparison  through  which  differences  of  qual- 


THE  FORMATION   OF  HIGHER  IDEAS.       129 

ities  are  perceived.  How  much  more  must  this  be 
the  case  when  it  is  not  a  matter  of  natural  objects  of 
a  striking  character  like  plants  and  animals,  but  of 
geometrical  figures  conceived  by  the  mind,  or  of  com- 
plex numbers  and  their  functions!  Without  signs 
for  these  objects  of  thought,  without  letters  and  fig- 
ures, a  theory  of  numbers  would  never  have  existed. 
Further,  it  is  to  the  development  of  subtile  distinc- 
tions between  ideas  by  means  of  words  that  we  owe 
all  our  metaphysics  and  a  great  part  of  philosophy 
and  theology,  and  no  small  portion  of  the  science  of 
law.  Such  a  development  is  found  only  among  civil- 
ized nations.  On  the  other  hand,  ability  as  contrasted 
with  knowledge,  art  as  opposed  to  analytic  science, 
has  less  need  of  an  abundant  stock  of  language,  of 
sounds  and  of  numbers,  in  order  to  reach  the  highest 
achievements.  The  child  has  the  advantage  of  not 
being  able  to  turn  away  from  the  actual  that  directly 
surrounds  him — as  he  might  through  overculture  in 
the  use  of  abstractions  be  turned  either  by  too  fre- 
quent naming  of  the  same  thing  with  different  words, 
or  by  too  subtile  distinctions  between  similar  concepts 
— until  instruction,  especially  in  grammar,  forces  him 
to  it.  Even  after  the  child  has  gradually  learned  to 
decline  and  conjugate,  and  is  beginning  to  master 
syntax,  language  serves  him  rather  for  the  expression 
of  his  own  experiences,  the  communication  of  them 
to  others,  particularly  to  those  of  His  own  age,  than 


130    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

for  the  conscious  formation  of  higher  concepts.  All 
that  he  learns  of  these  higher  concepts  is  impressed 
upon  him  by  adults,  or  at  any  rate  by  older  brothers 
and  sisters  and  relatives — he  is  inoculated  with  it  as 
with  foreign  matter. 

If  it  were  not  that  the  right  time  is  far  too  rarely 
considered,  no  great  objection  could  be  made  to  the 

I  substitution  of  learning  through  the  tuition  of  others 
in  place  of  the  predominant  self-tuition  in  childhood. 
For  there  comes  a  time,  after  speech  has  been  acquired, 
when  the  higher  ideas  of  God,  immortality,  freedom, 
eternity,  the  everlasting,  nothing,  death,  and,  further, 
of  duty,  responsibility,  self-control,  virtue,  and  many 
others,  must  be  taught  to  the  child.  Unfortunately, 
however,  the  beginning  is  made  too  soon  with  every- 
thing, at  least  in  most  families,  so  that  the  word  comes 
before  the  possibility  of  understanding  at  all  the  idea 
associated  with  it.  The  best  way,  undoubtedly,  of 
teaching  a  studious  boy  methods,  and  all  the  difficult 
abstract  matters  that  are  in  every  science  indispensa- 
ble for  progressive  development,  is  to  proceed  genet- 

1  ically  by  describing  to  him  how  the  first  discoverers 
and  inventors  arrived  at  them. 

Herein  consists  the  truly  reformatory  service  of  the 
much  misunderstood  Froebel — that  he  allowed  chil- 
dren themselves  to  invent  and  discover ;  that  by  edu- 
cation, or  rather  by  his  educational  instruction  through 
work,  he  brought  to  an  independent  unfolding,  even 


THE  FORMATION  OF  HIGHER  IDEAS.       131 

in  early  youth,  the  original,  and  therefore  hereditary, 
good  talents  of  the  little  ones,  but  would  not  listen  to 
the  claims  of  the  method  of  presenting  the  abstract 
prematurely. 

Hence  the  genial  originator  of  the  plan  of  the  new 
German  school,  Hugo  Goring,  is  perfectly  right  when 
he  desires  that  the  child,  in  his  first  school  instruction, 
shall  not  first  learn  what  has  been  learned  by  others, 
but  shall  be  led  to  understand  what  he  has  himself 
experienced. 

By  this  course  the  pleasure  in  learning  is  far  A. 
greater  than  in  the  ordinary  doctrinaire  or  dogmatic 
course,  and  that  which  is  learned  is  impressed  upon 
the  mind  much  more  permanently.  Eor  myself,  I  am 
absolutely  incapable  of  fixing  in  my  memory  a  series 
of  words  devoid  of  meaning,  jumbled  together ;  and  I 
could  never  in  my  youth  retain  the  witch's  multipli- 
cation table  in  Goethe's  Faust,  although  I  very  easily 
learned  by  heart  ballads  and  other  connected  poems, 
and  easily  kept  in  my  memory  dates  and  places.  In 
fact,  it  was  never  possible  for  me  to  retain  for  a  longer 
time  than  a  few  minutes  twenty  words  put  together 
arbitrarily  without  meaning.  And  yet  we  require  a 
child  to  do  this  when  he  learns  phrases  and  vocables 
the  meaning  of  which  he  does  not  understand.  Why 
we  do  it  is  not  to  be  discerned,  for  the  only  alleged 
motive — viz.,  that  children  must  learn  much  merely  to 
forget  it  afterward — will  not  be  accepted  seriously  by  a 


132    DEVELOPMENT  OF   MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

true  friend  of  the  young.    Children  learn  of  themselves, 
by  imitation,  far  too  much  that  they  have  to  forget. 

The  process,  which  is  certainly  a  purely  psychical 
one,  of  the  formation  of  concepts  may  be  brought  a 
little  nearer  to  our  understanding  from  the  physiolog- 
ical point  of  view  by  the  consideration  that  all  con- 
cepts, even  the  highest,  ultimately  come  to  exist  only 
after  a  great  many  sense-impressions  have  been  re- 
ceived. These  impressions,  taking  effect  especially 
through  the  eye  and  the  ear,  but  also,  particularly  in 
childhood,  through  the  sensory  nerves  in  the  finger- 
tips, the  lips,  and  the  tongue,  will  naturally  very  fre- 
quently cause  excitement  of  the  same  nerve  paths, 
along  with  the  same  central  portions  of  the  brain, 
because  they  agree  with  one  another.  For  example, 
far  more  tones  from  the  third  octave  and  the  fourth 
octave  will  set  into  activity  the  extremities  of  the  au- 
ditory nerves  in  the  inner  ear  than  from  anywhere 
else  in  the  range  of  tone,  in  hearing  either  spoken 
words  or  any  kind  of  music.  The  lowest  and  the 
highest  tones  are  therefore  not  audible  at  all  to  many 
people  for  lack  of  practice.  So,  too,  with  the  light 
that  is  of  medium  wave-length,  with  the  temperatures 
that  lie  about  equally  distant  from  the  highest  en- 
durable degrees  of  heat  or  of  cold :  For  the  reason 
that  such  a  medium  stratum  of  sense-impressions  in 
the  scale  of  sensations  in  every  department  of  sense  is 
from  the  moment  of  birth  employed  more  frequently 


THE  FORMATION  OF  HIGHER  IDEAS.       133 

than  the  other  strata,  there  comes  an  adaptation  of 
the  whole  nerve  mechanism  to  it.  The  nerve  fibers 
that  by  means  of  it  come  first  into  activity  as  the 
leading  ones  respond  more  and  more  readily,  and 
probably  offer  less  resistance  to  the  stimulus  that  has 
often  before  been  felt,  and  is  therefore  not  new ;  so 
that  in  the  central  portion  also  the  ruts  are,  as  it 
were,  easier  to  travel  in.  The  connections  of  different 
impressions  with  one  another — e.  g.,  of  tactile  with 
visual  impressions  in  seizing  objects,  of  auditory  with 
visual  in  the  tearing  of  paper,  of  tactile  with  auditory 
in  the  clapping  of  hands,  of  taste  and  feeling  in  the 
sucking  of  milk — presuppose  organic  association-paths 
in  the  brain.  And  whether  these  are  located  in  the 
portion  called  by  Charcot  the  carrefour  sensitif^  or  in 
a  different  tract,  or  in  several  places,  it  must  be  re- 
garded as  extremely  probable  that,  in  case  of  strong 
excitement  of  a  sense-center,  there  will  be  produced 
an  accompanying  excitement  of  the  one  that  has  very 
often  been  excited  along  with  it  through  an  external 
impression  which,  while  it  was  single,  yet  distributed 
itself  between  two  senses. 

This  view  supplies  a  physiological  basis  for  the 
old  law  of  the  association  of  ideas,  and  we  can  well 
conceive  that  when  one  of  the  very  numerous,  extraor- 
dinarily thin,  connecting  fibers  and  protoplasmatic 
plexuses  in  the  cerebral  cortex  becomes  impassable  in 

advanced  age,  the  memory  weakens ;  a  memory-image 
11 


134:    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

emerges,  and  the  fellow  of  it  no  more  presents  itself. 
A  new  sense-impression  then  remains  isolated,  or 
awakens,  through  accompanying  excitement,  only 
such  memory-images  as  have  from  the  days  of  youth 
been  impressed  with  special  strength,  the  rest  being 
too  quickly  obliterated,  and  no  more  coming  to  real- 
ization in  the  dulled  visual  or  auditory  or  other  sen- 
sory sphere.  It  must  be  assumed  that  these  spheres 
in  age,  whether  through  deficient  nutrition  or  through 
decrease  of  the  plasticity  of  their  protoplasm,  grad- 
ually become  less  capable  of  their  function,  or  waste 
away  through  consumption  of  the  protoplasm,  where- 
as in  childhood  the  case  is  exactly  reversed — the 
spheres  are  not  yet  capable  of  functioning  on  account 
of  incomplete  development,  lack  of  material  for  form- 
ing tissue,  and,  in  particular,  lack  of  impressions  to  be 
realized  by  them,  which,  as  we  know,  can  not  reach 
them  until  after  the  first  month  of  life.  The  num- 
ber and  variety  of  the  impressions  is  doubtless  in  the 
external  world  the  same  in  earliest  youth  as  in  ex- 
treme age,  but  in  both  the  capacity  of  the  cerebral 
substance  to  realize  them  is  far  less  than  in  middle 
age.  The  child  can  not  yet  form  concepts  out  of 
them ;  the  aged  man  can  no  longer  do  it.  The  latter 
is  "  grown  childish  "  because  his  cerebral  cortex,  like 
that  of  the  child,  does  not  perform  its  function. 

There  is  a  very  remarkable  agreement  in  regard  to 
the  beginning  of  the  formation  of  concepts,  one  which 


THE  FORMATION  OF  HIGHER  IDEAS.       135 

will  probably  be  confirmed  without  exception  in  every 
family  on  the  globe,  if  we  take  the  trouble  to  examine 
more  closely  the  behavior  of  the  newborn,  and  of  in- 
fants among  savages.  This  is  the  identity  of  the  first 
ideas  formed  by  children  in  general.  There  has  long 
been  a  lively  dispute  as  to  the  possibility  of  so-called 
innate  ideas.  The  question  now  takes  a  different 
turn,  for,  beyond  a  doubt,  no  mental  representation 
can  be  inborn  in  any  human  being.  The  representa- 
tion, or  idea,  can  not  arise  before  perceptions  exist — 
i.  e.,  before  sense-impressions  of  various  kinds  have 
been  co-ordinated  in  time  and  space.  And  even  after 
the  attainment  of  this  first  stage  of  activity  of  intel- 
lect, a  further  step  is  still  necessary,  as  I  have  shown, 
for  the  formation  of  an  idea,  viz.,  the  seeking  out  of 
the  cause  of  that  which  is  perceived.  Now,  all  this 
can  not  be  done  by  a  newborn  child.  He  is  not  yet 
capable  of  perceiving  anything.  But  if  we  consider 
that  all  newly  born  children  pass  the  first  period  of 
life  under  very  similar  circumstances — that  they  sleep, 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  twenty-four  hours  of 
the  day,  that  they  devote  a  large  portion  of  the  day 
to  the  taking  of  milk,  and  that  they  let  the  remainder 
of  their  waking  time  go  by  passively  while  they  are 
being  washed,  clothed,  and  taken  care  of — then  we 
see  plainly  that  the  first  sensations,  and  the  percep- 
tions that  go  with  them,  must  be  very  similar  in  all 
children — must,  in  fact,  be  identical.  The  thing  in 


136    DEVELOPMENT   OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

which  the  intellectual  life  of  the  first  few  days,  and 
even  weeks,  centers,  as  far  more  important  than  any- 
thing else,  is  nourishment,  food ;  or  rather,  to  speak 
from  the  child's  point  of  view,  that  which  removes  the 
disagreeable  feeling  of  hunger  and  thirst  (p.  18),  and 
produces  the  pleasurable  feeling  of  sweetness,  of  suck- 
ing, of  moderate  warmth,  in  the  mouth.  We  can  not, 
however,  incline  to  call  this  most  important  thing, 
viz.,  the  idea  of  milk,  an  innate  idea ;  we  might  much 
better  call  it  hereditary.  But  this  expression  would 
not  be  quite  correct,  for  there  is  nothing  innate  here 
but  the  tendency  and  capacity  to  form  such  a  product 
of  thought.  The  sensibility  is  innate,  and  this  is 
hereditary;  innate,  also,  is  the  intellect,  which  very 
early  associates  the  milk  with  the  removal  of  the  hun- 
ger, without  associating  it  in  the  least  with  its  indis- 
pensable value  as  food.  The  intellect,  too,  may  be 
called  hereditary,  but  its  functions  are  always  de- 
pendent on  external  impressions ;  and  it  is  only  be- 
cause these  agree  in  all  children  in  the  first  period  of 
life  that  some  of  its  activities  appear  to  be  innate. 
The  case  is  similar  to  that  of  the  inheritance  of  teeth, 
of  the  beard,  and  the  color  of  the  hair,  and  even  the 
color  of  the  iris.  The  teeth  are  very  often  found  to 
be  of  such  form  and  arrangement  in  children  as  in  the 
parents  and  grandparents,  although  the  teeth  are  not 
innate,  but  only  their  potentiality.  The  form  and 
color  of  the  beard  are  very  frequently  hereditary,  but 


THE  FORMATION   OF   HIGHER  IDEAS.        137 

a  full  beard  is  never  innate.  Almost  all  children 
come  into  the  world  with  blue  eyes,  while  brown, 
gray,  and  greenish  eyes  are  not  seldom  hereditary.  It 
is  much  the  same  in  the  intellectual  sphere.  The 
tendencies  which,  along  with  the  sensibility,  like 
germs  in  the  seed-corn,  are  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
word  inborn,  lead  to  perceptions  and  ideas  which  are 
not  in  the  least  inborn,  but  which  must  be  called 
hereditary  because  they  come  forth  out  of  these  tend- 
encies just  as  necessarily  as  the  teeth  and  hair  come 
forth  out  of  their  inherited  tendencies. 

It  has  often  been  overlooked  that  in  animate  na- 
ture, as  well  as  in  inanimate,  the  necessity  of  an  event 
is  inevitable  if  the  requisite  conditions  are  fulfilled. 
Just  as  little  as  a  metal  can  contract  while  it  is 
heated,  just  as  little  as  it  can  expand  while  it  is  cool- 
ing, so  little  can  an  inborn  tendency  remain  undevel- 
oped when  the  external  conditions  of  development  are 
given.  Intellectual  tendencies,  talents,  genius,  inher- 
ited good  qualities  of  character,  must  unfold  them- 
selves when  the  conditions  of  development  in  general 
are  given,  as  surely  as  a  rightly  constructed  clock  that 
has  been  properly  wound,  and  has  had  its  pendulum 
put  properly  to  swinging,  must  move  its  hands.  The 
notion  of  Lichtenberg,  that  a  man  should  not  say  "  I 
think,"  but  "  It  thinks  in  me,"  has  special  force  for 
the  first  stages  of  thinking  in  the  child  ;  it  must  think 
in  him.  In  consequence  of  external  impressions  act- 


138    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

ing  always  in  the  same  way  during  countless  genera- 
tions in  the  human  race,  and  even  in  the  mammals, 
in  the  very  first  period  of  life,  the  child  has  in  every 
instance  adjusted  his  brain  to  the  same  way  of  re- 
ceiving nourishment  through  milk,  and  to  what  goes 
along  with  that ;  and  hence  it  can  not  seem  strange 
that  all  human  children  in  their  very  first  period  of 
life  think  precisely  the  same  thing,  and  are  not  distin- 
guished from  one  another  by  any  kind  of  "ideas." 
At  most  they  show  differences  in  regard  to  the  par- 
ticular times,  the  dates,  at  which  the  divergence  of 
their  natural  predispositions  appears.  But  these  dif- 
ferences are  very  slight  in  comparison  with  the  vast 
difference  in  the  opinions,  knowledge,  qualities  of 
character  and  passions,  of  adult  men  and  women. 

A  differentiation  is  effected  in  the  intellectual 
sphere,  particularly  during  the  learning-time  of  the 
boy  and  the  girl,  which  resembles  in  many  respects 
the  differentiation  of  growing  forms  in  the  animal 
and  the  vegetable  kingdom.  This  I  have  already  in- 
dicated with  reference  to  another  matter,  at  the  end 
of  the  fifth  chapter.  The  similarity  of  eggs  or  germs 
is  often  so  great  that  nobody  can  discover  the  least 
difference  by  observation,  no  matter  how  searching 
the  microscopic,  physical,  or  chemical  examination ; 
and  yet  in  the  course  of  development  the  variation  of 
the  forms  becomes  plainly  visible  and  can  be  discerned 
without  special  means  of  investigation.  Nay,  more : 


THE  FORMATION  OF  HIGHER  IDEAS.       139 

in  the  early  stages  of  development  of  the  egg  of  the 
animal,  during  the  segmentation  of  it,  the  products  of 
segmentation,  the  formative  cells,  which  come  into 
existence  through  the  segmentation,  often  resemble 
one  another  so  much  that  nobody  can  tell  by  looking 
at  them  what  they  will  soon  become,  and  it  is  all  the 
same  whether  we  are  dealing  with  a  sensory  organ, 
a  motor  organ,  respiratory  apparatus,  or  nutritive,  etc. 
All  is  at  first  apparently  quite  homogeneous — at  any 
rate,  undistinguishable  by  a  human  eye ;  and  yet  every 
part  must  be  different  from  every  other,  different  in 
hereditary,  indestructible  qualities,  otherwise  there 
could  not  proceed  from  it,  in  the  comparatively  short 
term  of  the  progressive  development  of  the  egg,  the 
wide  variation  of  all  the  internal  and  external  por- 
tions of  the  growing  organism. 

Very  much  the  same  is  it  with  the  mental  activity 
of  the  child.  In  the  beginning  the  mental  germ  (one 
might  speak  figuratively  of  a  mental  egg)  is  for  the 
observer  homogeneous  in  its  various  parts,  and  in  it 
the  various  directions  of  the  coming  development  are 
not  yet  discernible.  Soon,  however,  these  come  plain- 
ly forth,  when  the  higher  activity  of  the  senses  has 
progressed  from;  general  feeling  to  a  separation  of  the 
special  sensations  and  to  perception.  But  even  at  this 
stage  all  children  resemble  one  another,  for  the  rea- 
son that  in  all  of  them  this  first  intellectual  differen- 
tiation has  been  going  on  in  the  same  way  for  count- 


140    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

less  generations.  A  stability,  or  faculty  of  persist- 
ence, comparable  to  inertia  in  the  inorganic  world,  to 
which  we  give  the  name  heredity,  is  so  pronounced, 
that  the  extremely  insignificant  variations  in  the  en- 
vironment of  newborn  human  beings  can  make  no 
further  change  in  them.  These  variations  do  not 
produce  their  effect  until  the  period  of  later  child- 
hood and  youth ;  then  with  them  the  means  of  educa- 
tion co-operate  to  modify  the  condition  and  character 
of  the  human  being. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   DEVELOPMENT    OF    SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. 

THE  relation  of  consciousness  to  self -conscious- 
ness has  had  so  much  thought  expended  upon  it  for 
centuries,  while  yet  so  little  has  become  generally  ac- 
cepted concerning  it,  that  one  can  not  help  wonder- 
ing when  he  sees  that  the  only  way  that  can  lead  to 
the  settlement  of  the  differences  of  opinion  is  almost 
entirely  neglected.  This  way  is  the  accurate  observa- 
tion of  the  child  at  the  critical  period  when  he  prop- 
erly discovers  himself,  distinguishes  himself  from 
other  bodies  living  and  inanimate.  But  what  is  the 
meaning  of  "  he  "  and  "  himself  "  when  thus  used  ?  Is 
there  not  in  the  mere  juxtaposition  of  these  two  pro- 
nouns, both  of  which  indicate  the  same  being,  viz., 
the  child,  an  assumption  without  proof?  What  can 
we  mean  when  we  ask  the  question,  "  At  what  time 
does  the  child  distinguish  himself  from  other  persons, 
and  how  does  he  come  to  make  this  distinction?" 
What  is  it,  then,  that  distinguishes?  and  what  is  it 
that  is  distinguished  ? 


142    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

Evidently  we  must  advance  here  step  by  step  from 
the  first  phase  in  the  child's  life  when  there  is  no  "  I," 
paying  especial  heed  to  the  behavior  of  the  child  in 
his  perception  of  the  members  of  his  own  body  and 
his  perception  of  foreign  objects  seized  by  him. 
There  is  not  the  least  reason  for  assuming  in  advance 
that  every  human  being  comes  into  the  world  en- 
dowed with  complete  consciousness  of  self.  Still  less 
can  we  adopt  the  old  view  (now,  happily,  an  anti- 
quated one),  that  at  the  moment  of  birth  an  immor- 
tal soul  is  in  waiting,  as  it  were,  for  the  new  and  as 
yet  unconscious  citizen  of  the  world  in  order  to  take 
possession  of  him  forever.  The  tiresome  disputes  of 
the  lawyers  as  to  the  time  at  which  a  human  being 
may  properly  be  regarded  as  a  particular  individual 
are  just  as  fruitless  for  the  question  in  hand  as  are  the 
speculations  of  earlier  and,  for  that  matter,  not  yet 
quite  extinct  philosophers  concerning  the  absolute 
permanence  of  the  soul  as  a  being  independent  of  its 
receptacle,  the  body,  or  at  any  rate  separate  from  it. 
Impartial  physiological  investigation  shows  even  in 
the  adult,  beyond  refutation,  a  persistent  dependence 
of  every  mental  activity,  not  excepting  the  highest, 
upon  the  nervous  system,  and  in  particular  upon  the 
cerebral  cortex.  If  the  cortex  is  injured,  the  mental 
activity  can  not  remain  normal.  But  a  lowering  of 
this  activity,  extending  so  far  as  to  complete  extinc- 
tion of  what  we  call  mind,  takes  place  when  the  brain 


DEVELOPMENT  OP  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.    143 

is  free  from  injury,  during  dreamless  sleep  and  during 
the  chloroform  narcosis.  And  any  one  who,  in  order 
to  save  the  uninterrupted  continuance  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  self,  goes  so  far  as  to  deny  the  possibility 
of  absolutely  dreamless  sleep,  or  of  a  swoon  involving 
complete  insensibility,  will  always  have  to  remain  a 
debtor  for  the  proof  of  his  assertion. 

Now,  if  neither  the  uninterrupted  continuance  of 
conscious  mental  activity  in  sleep  nor  its  independ- 
ence of  very  finely  organized  tissues  can  be  proved, 
while  such  a  continuity  seems  rather  to  be  wanting  in 
the  case  of  insane  and  hypnotized  persons,  then,  tak- 
ing our  stand  upon  experience,  we  must  question 
also  the  unity  of  this  mental  activity.  Even  if  we 
had  not  the  great  number  of  observations  we  possess 
concerning  a  manifold  consciousness,  a  double  ego,  an 
exchange  of  personality  in  hypnotized  persons  and  in 
certain  hysteric  women  and  men,  who  can  by  no  means 
be  classed  as  insane — or  if  these  observations  turned 
out  to  be  an  incomprehensible  series  of  errors-^-still 
conscientious  observation  of  the  little  child  would 
alone  suffice  to  prove  that  the  dogma,  developed  out 
of  presumption  and  overestimate  of  self,  of  the  im- 
mutability of  the  consciousness  of  self  is  absolutely 
irreconcilable  with  the  facts. 

This  is  shown  by  the  answer  that  must  be  made  to 
the  questions  that  are  first  of  all  to  be  answered. 
How  does  the  child  come,  in  general,  to  the  conscious- 


DEVELOPMENT   OF  MIND  IN  THE   CHILD. 

ness  of  himself  ?  Through  what  means  does  he  dis- 
tinguish himself  from  others  ?  At  this  point  I  must 
call  attention  to  something  which  appears  to  have 
been  hitherto  wholly  overlooked,  the  behavior  of  all 
little  children  toward  the  parts  of  their  own  body. 
In  the  child  who  is  born  with  all  his  senses,  each  sense 
contributes  more  or  less  toward  the  distinction  of  his 
own  bodily  members  from  other  persons  and  from  ob- 
jects without  life.  The  eye  sees  the  arms,  the  hands, 
and  the  fingers,  which  can  not  as  yet  be  counted,  the 
legs,  knees,  feet,  and  the  still  less  countable  toes— all 
of  which  move.  These  parts  are  all  plainly  seen 
whenever  anything  definite  comes  forth  in  the  field  of 
vision — which  at  the  beginning  is  made  up  only  of 
vague  areas,  running  into  one  another,  light  and  dark, 
colored  and  colorless — and  when  accommodation,  i.  e., 
the  ability  to  see  objects  at  unequal  distances  with 
equal  distinctness,  becomes  active.  Then  the  child's 
eye  sees  also  the  breast  and  the  abdomen,  as  well  as 
the  lateral  portions  of  the  trunk,  the  hips,  much  more 
seldom  the  shoulders,  never  the  back,  and  of  the  head 
nothing,  unless  it  may  be  the  tip  of  the  nose,  in  shut- 
ting an  eye.  The  perception  of  the  image  in  the  mir- 

«• 
ror  belongs  to  a  later  period. 

But  the  clothes  that  cover  the  skin,  which  is  visi- 
ble in  the  bath  and  in  bed,  are  likewise  seen ;  and  the 
retinal  images  of  them  must,  since  these  objects  un- 
dergo few  alterations  in  the  first  year  of  life,  impress 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.    145 

themselves  as  firmly  as  do  the  parts  of  the  body,  which 
remain  almost  unchanged  in  appearance,  except  that 
they  are  sometimes  red,  often  pale,  but  always  mobile 
and  moved  together  with  the  clothes.  Each  separate 
part,  of  course,  can  only  very  slowly  be  impressed 
upon  the  memory  through  the  sense  of  sight,  along 
with  the  gradual  development  of  the  visual  sphere; 
for  as  late  as  the  thirteenth,  the  fourteenth,  even  the 
nineteenth  month,  and,  in  fact,  toward  the  end  of  the 
second  year,  I  have  myself  repeatedly  perceived  that 
in  children  perfectly  sound  and  well  developed  their 
own  arm  appears  to  them  something  entirely  foreign. 
In  the  fourteenth  month  a  child  bit  himself  in  the 
upper  arm,  after  having  looked  at  it  a  while,  standing 
up  in  his  bed  and  holding  by  the  railing  with  both 
hands,  so  that  the  marks  of  the  teeth  remained  visi- 
ble for  a  long  time  after,  and  he  suffered  pain  from 
the  bite.  All  children,  it  is  likely,  bite  themselves 
now  and  then  in  the  fingers,  try  sometimes  in  a  pas- 
sion to  pull  them  out,  or  at  any  rate  they  pull  with 
one  hand  the  fingers  of  the  other  so  vigorously  that 
their  movements  scarcely  admit  of  any  other  interpre- 
tation than  that  they  want  to  get  the  fingers  off ;  and 
it  is  much  the  same  with  the  feet  and  toes.  Little 
children  like  to  get  their  toes  to  the  mouth  and  to 
amuse  themselves  with  these  as  with  playthings,  offer- 
ing a  biscuit  to  the  feet  as  if  these  could  share  in  the 
eating  of  it.  Chickens  when  quite  young  peck  at  the 


146    DEVELOPMENT  OP  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

nails  of  their  own  toes  as  at  grains  of  millet,  and  at 
inkspots  on  the  table.  Sometimes  a  child  tries  to  get 
the  whole  foot  loose  from  the  leg  when  some  one  says 
to  him,  "  Give  me  your  foot "  (for  the  purpose  of  put- 
ting the  child's  shoe  or  stocking  on  him).  Here  be- 
longs also  the  careful  looking  at  the  hands  and  finger- 
tips in  the  seventeenth  to  the  twentieth  week,  before 
the  child's  attempts  to  grasp  objects  are  perfected. 
When  a  grasp  at  the  object  has  failed,  children  ob- 
serve their  hands,  and  when  they  have  succeeded  in 
grasping  a  thing  they  are  fond  of  looking  alternately 
at  the  object  and  at  their  hands.  In  the  same  man- 
ner, when  by  chance  both  hands  have  come  in  con- 
tact with  each  other  in  the  numerous  aimless  move- 
ments of  the  arms,  the  fingers  are  scrutinized. 

Thus  the  sense  of  sight  combines  with  the  sense  of 
touch  in  the  acquirement  of  knowledge  of  the  parts 
of  the  body,  from  the  second  year  on.  The  sense  of 
touch,  however,  by  itself  furnishes  much  material  in 
this  direction ;  for  when  the  child  touches  his  own 
skin  in  the  dark,  or  with  his  eyes  shut,  he  always  has 
two  sensations  of  contact,  that  of  the  finger  touching 
and  that  of  the  place  touched ;  on  the  contrary,  when 
he  touches  any  object  not  a  part  of  himself,  he  has 
only  the  sensation  of  the  part  that  touches.  When 
this  difference  is  frequently  repeated,  as  is  the  case 
with  every  child  without  exception,  then  it  must  be- 
come by  degrees  more  and  more  clear.  Moreover,  the 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.    147 

child  learns  in  this  way  to  distinguish  from  one  an- 
other the  various  forms  of  the  separate  parts  of  his 
body ;  e.  g.,  the  roundness  of  the  chin  and  the  flat- 
ness of  the  breast.  The  great  mobility  of  the  toes 
and  the  slight  mobility  of  the  trunk  are  felt.  Fur- 
ther, there  comes  the  distinction  of  unlike  tempera- 
tures of  different  places.  If  the  hand  goes  to  the 
breast,  it  feels  less  warm  than  when  it  lies  on  the 
abdomen ;  in  the  mouth  the  fingers  feel  warmer  than 
on  the  feet,  on  the  forehead  cooler  than  on  the 
shoulder.  Then  is  noticed  the  unequal  hardness  of 
the  different  places  on  the  body.  The  hand  coming 
in  contact  with  the  head,  it  experiences  greater  resist- 
ance than  when  it  is  laid  on  the  stomach. 

Through  distinctions  of  this  sort  in  the  domain  of 
the  sense  of  touch  and  of  temperature,  the  body,  which 
has  been  felt  of  daily  for  many  months,  which  at  the 
beginning  naturally  seemed  to  the  tactual  sphere 
something  just  as  foreign  as  any  object  whatever  that 
could  be  felt,  that  was  warm  or  cold,  hard  or  soft — 
this  body  must  gradually  have  less  of  the  charm  of 
novelty,  and  must  therefore  lose  in  interest.  Thus 
the  child  becomes  by  degrees  accustomed  to  the  per- 
ception of  the  parts  of  his  own  body,  and  so  to  him- 
self, in  contrast  with  the  strange,  the  new,  the  con- 
tinually changing. 

In  this  process  two  different  departments  of  sense 
are  already  taking  part  in  the  formation  of  the  I-feel- 


148    DEVELOPMENT   OF   MIND  IN   THE  CHILD. 

ing  (or  feeling  of  selfhood).  Not  by  any  means  that 
they  necessarily  work  together  from  the  start,  since 
even  children  born  blind  get  the  same  experiences  of 
themselves  through  the  sense  of  touch  that  seeing 
children  do.  The  seeing  ego  is  by  a  wide  margin  in- 
dependent of  the  feeling  eyo.  The  hearing  ego  is  yet 
to  come.  For  every  child,  after  some  time,  when  it 
babbles  and  screams,  when  it  laughs  and  shouts,  and 
in  particular  when  it  tries  to  imitate  sounds  heard, 
hears  with  special  satisfaction  its  own  voice.  And 
that  this  voice  must  make  a  different  impression  on 
his  brain,  must  be  turned  to  different  account,  be 
realized,  in  the  child's  auditory  sphere,  differently 
from  any  noise  not  made  by  himself  or  any  series 
of  sounds  coming  from  without — of  this  there  can 
not  be  a  doubt.  Another  important  thing  is  the 
frequent  production  of  noises  and  sounds  by  the 
child's  hands  when  he  strikes  them  against  his  body, 
when  he  claps  his  hands,  and  when  he  uses  foreign 
objects  to  make  a  din,  as  he  often  does  with  intoler- 
able persistency.  Every  careful  observer  may  perceive 
that  the  attention  of  the  child  is  always  strained  in  a 
peculiar  manner  when  he  himself  is  the  cause  of  a 
phenomenon  that  produces  noise.  It  affords  much 
greater  pleasure  to  every  little  child  to  sound  any  in- 
strument himself,  a  toy  trumpet  or  drum,  than  to 
hear  other  persons  "  make  music "  with  it ;  and  he 
would  rather  make  a  splash  in  the  water  than  to  hear 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.    149 

others  do  it.  As  soon  as  this  point  is  reached  the 
development  of  the  consciously  hearing  ego  is  per- 
fected. But  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  this  ego  may 
develop  quite  independently  of  the  seeing  and  feeling 
ego  ;  for  children  born  totally  deaf  have  nothing  of  it, 
and  yet  their  visual  and  tactual  spheres  are  none  the 
worse  for  the  deficiency,  but  rather  appear  to  be  only 
the  more  acutely  developed. 

How  it  may  be  with  the  part  played  by  the  senses 
of  smell  and  of  taste  in  the  development  of  self-con- 
sciousness, it  is  hard  to  say;  for  while  both  these 
senses,  the  most  subjective  of  all,  become  active  very 
early,  it  can  not  be  perceived  so  plainly  how  far 
through  them — through  the  realization,  therefore,  of 
the  olfactory  and  gustatory  impressions  in  the  olfac- 
tory and  gustatory  spheres  in  the  brain — the  child's 
body  is  distinguished  by  him  from  other  things.  No 
doubt  to  the  little  child,  as  to  the  adult,  the  smell  of 
his  own  skin,  and  of  his  clothing,  is  for  the  most  part 
less  disagreeable  than  that  of  another's  skin  and  cloth- 
ing ;  and  there  may  be  developed  quite  early  in  the 
babe,  who  commonly  smells  of  sour  milk,  by  means 
of  olfactory  impressions  not  suited  to  him  (of  tobacco, 
for  example),  a  strong  dislike  of  strangers.  But  the 
sense  of  smell  leads  so  little  to  specific  self-considera- 
tion that  it  can  hardly  contribute  much  to  the  devel- 
opment of  self-consciousness. 

The  sense  of  taste  may  be  of  more  importance  in 


150    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

this  respect,  since  it  introduces  in  the  yery  earliest 
period  of  life  the  most  agreeable  sensations  on  the  one 
hand  (the  sweet),  and  on  the  other  hand  extremely 
disagreeable  ones  (in  the  taking  of  bitter  medicines). 
Of  all  general  sensations,  however,  it  is  precisely  dis- 
agreeable feeling,  pain  most  of  all,  that  is  the  most 
influential  teacher  in  the  distinguishing  of  the  child's 
ego  from  other  things,  as  I  have  already  remarked. 
When  the  finger  smarts  after  being  put  into  the  flame 
of  a  candle,  as  the  arm  does  after  a  bite,  it  will  not 
soon  be  put  into  the  flame  again ;  and  the  biting  of 
the  fingers  very  soon  comes  to  a  stop  on  account  of 
the  painful  effect  that  follows ;  whereas  the  child  likes 
to  put  the  fingers  of  other  persons,  and  objects  of 
similar  shape,  into  his  mouth  and  to  bite,  even  long 
before  his  teeth  come,  and  he  continues  for  a  long 
time  to  grind  his  first  teeth,  which  are  to  him  a  new 
plaything.  He  has  not  yet  discovered  with  regard  to 
all  the  parts  belonging  to  his  organism  the  difference 
between  them  and  that  which  does  not  belong  to  him. 
When  he  has  once  apprehended  this  distinction,  after 
having  become  accustomed  to  his  own  skin,  his  own 
limbs,  he  holds  it  fast  for  all  the  rest  of  his  life — at 
least  so  long  as  his  higher  cerebral  activity  continues 
normal.  In  certain  mental  disorders,  to  be  sure,  the 
I-feeling  (or  feeling  of  selfhood),  so  toilsomely  ac- 
quired through  self-investigation,  through  pain  and 
pleasure,  through  comparison  of  the  experiences  of  all 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.    151 

the  five  departments  of  sense  with  one  another,  may 
be  lost  or  become  perverted,  as  is  proved  by  the  fre- 
quent self-mutilations  of  the  insane. 

One  more  factor  remains  to  be  considered  in  re- 
gard to  the  development  of  the  consciousness  of  self, 
and  one  of  essential  importance.  This  is  the  connec- 
tion of  the  higher  nervous  centers  in  the-  brain  with 
the  lower  ones  in  the  spinal  marrow  by  means  of  the 
cervical  marrow.  Those  animals  only  that  possess  a 
centralized  nervous  system  have,  in.  general,  self -con- 
sciousness. Where  this  system  is  wanting,  conscious- 
ness indeed  may  exist,  but  not  self-consciousness ;  and 
where  it  is  developed,  we  have,  according  to  all  the 
results  of  good  investigations  of  experimental  physiol- 
ogists, not  only  the  right  but  the  duty  also  to  dis- 
tinguish various  degrees  of  consciousness  according  to 
the  seat  of  the  motor  impulses.  Just  as  I  have  pre- 
viously characterized  the  consciousness  of  the  person 
seeing  as  not  necessarily  identical  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  person  hearing,  feeling,  smelling,  tasting, 
so  we  must  separate  the  consciousness  of  the  spinal 
marrow,  or  of  the  cervical  marrow,  from  the  cortical 
consciousness  of  the  cerebral  hemispheres,  that  is  to  say, 
the  proper  higher  ego  or  I.  It  has  long  been  known 
that  the  tail  of  a  squirrel,  even  after  complete  sepa- 
ration from  the  body  of  the  animal,  curls  on  receiving 
impressions  producing  pain,  and  makes  adaptive 
movements  as  if  the  whole  creature  were  there.  So 


152    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

in  the  case  of  eels  without  heads,  of  frogs  and  other 
amphibia  without  brain,  and  even  of  mammals  after 
excision  of  the  entire  brain,  numerous  observers  have 
established  the  fact  of  movements  adaptive  in  a  very 
high  degree.  I  have  myself  seen  in  newborn  mam- 
mals with  no  heads  exactly  the  same  sorts  of  move- 
ment as  in  animals  not  deformed,  and  have  seen  a  hu- 
man child,  born  without  brain,  cry  and  suck  and  make 
movements  just  like  a  normal  child.  It  even  showed 
the  same  mimical  gustatory  reflexes  as  the  normal 
child,  and  must  therefore,  like  that,  have  been  capa- 
ble of  feeling.  From  this  it  follows  that  in  normal 
children  at  the  beginning  of  life  the  chief  seat  of  self- 
consciousness,  the  cerebral  cortex,  is  not  necessary  for 
the  totality  of  their  movements.  The  newborn  hu- 
man being  appears  to  be  only  scantily  developed. 
He  is  really  ^o-less,  and  all  he  can  do  is,  without  will 
or  thought,  to  let  his  lower  centers,  in  the  cervical  and 
the  spinal  marrow,  operate.  The  newborn  child  must 
therefore  be  called  irrational.  He  becomes  a  self- 
conscious  being  very  slowly,  during  the  development 
of  his  cerebrum.  But  even  in  the  highest  stage  of 
development,  in  the  years  of  complete  maturity,  the 
activity  of  the  lower  centers  of  consciousness  can  not 
be  discontinued,  because  the  brain  is  not  able  of  it- 
self to  direct  all  the  phenomena  of  the  body  that  de- 
pend on  the  central  nervous  system,  the  processes  of 
nutrition  and  excretion,  of  respiration  and  heart- activ- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.     153 

ity,  of  generation  of  warmth,  of  growth,  etc.;  all  these 
functions,  rather,  go  on  better  without  deliberation, 
without  will — in  fact,  for  the  most  part  without  con- 
scious sensation — because  in  undisturbed  regularity. 
But  they  continue  through  life  to  be  dependent  on 
the  spinal  and  cervical  marrow.  Not  until  certain 
bounds  that  separate  perfect  health  from  disordered 
states  are  passed  does  the  cerebral  consciousness  learn 
of  the  disturbance.  And  when  this  happens,  most 
persons  are  not  able  to  describe  accurately  the  loca- 
tion and  character  of  the  pain ;  e.  g.,  in  oppression, 
colic,  stitch  in  the  side,  cardialgia.  Inasmuch  as  the 
messages  sent  by  the  spinal  marrow  and  the  periph- 
eral nerves  to  the  brain  from  these  parts  are  seldom 
acutely  discriminated — and  the  same  is  true  of  the 
painful  feelings — the  cerebral  ego  is  not  well  informed  ; 
whereas  in  judging  of  changes  in  the  field  of  vision, 
in  hearing  new  words  and  melodies,  and  even  in  feel- 
ing new  objects  cold  or  warm,  an  account  is  far  more 
easily  given. 

In  this  difficult  question  concerning  the  develop- 
ment of  the  self-consciousness  of  the  ego  of  the  cere- 
bral cortex,  we  must  ever  bear  in  mind  that  this  ego 
can  not  possibly  be  anything  unitary,  like  the  concept 
of  the  ego  gained  through  pure  abstraction,  but,  in 
proportion  always  to  the  prominence  of  activity  of  the 
one  or  the  other  sensory  sphere,  is  impressed  more 
strongly  now  in  this  direction,  now  in  that.  The  dog 


154    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE   CHILD. 

has  a  stronger  olfactory  consciousness,  the  vulture  a 
stronger  visual  consciousness,  than  has  man.  But  by 
way  of  compensation  man  enjoys  a  property  of  his 
central  consciousness  that  belongs  to  no  animal  in  the 
same  degree,  and  which  first  makes  him  properly  man, 
a  responsible  being :  I  mean  the  regulative  activity  of 
the  brain.  For  the  reason  that  the  collective  sense- 
impressions,  in  proportion  always  to  their  serviceable- 
ness  for  the  unfolding  of  intellectual  life,  gradually 
lead  to  ideas,  which  in  their  relations  with  one  another 
— now  opposing,  now  supplementing  one  another — 
give  rise  to  the  voluntary  movements,  it  becomes  pos- 
sible for  man  to  shape  his  movements  in  general  to 
correspond  to  the  demands  the  world  makes  upon  him, 
that  is,  to  master  it  and  thereby  to  act  rationally. 

To  develop  in  the  child  (who,  as  has  been  said, 
utterly  lacks  it  in  the  first  period  of  his  existence)  this 
eminent  property  of  man — to  do  this  systematically, 
with  constant  reference  to  physiological  considera- 
tions, is  under  all  circumstances  one  of  the  highest 
problems  a  human  being  can  propose  to  himself. 
Only  when  the  consciousness  of  self  has  reached  such 
a  development  that  the  child  knows  what  he  does  and 
what  he  does  not  do,  can  he  be  made  clearly  conscious 
of  responsibility  for  his  actions,  and  so  for  the  conse- 
quences of  the  thing  done  or  not'  done.  Then,  out  of 
knowledge  (science)  is  developed  his  conscience.  But 
to  follow  out  these  phases  of  mental  development  in 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.    155 

the  child  would  carry  us  too  far  at  present.  That  be- 
longs to  the  theory  of  education.  I  prefer,  in  closing, 
to  sum  up  briefly  the  principal  results  of  the  consider- 
ations presented  in  this  chapter. 

There  are  several  grades  of  consciousness,  lower 
and  higher,  which  have  different  seats — in  the  higher 
animals,  particularly  in  the  spinal  marrow,  cervical 
marrow,  and  brain.  The  highest  grade,  self-conscious- 
ness so  called,  which  does  not  necessarily  imply  a 
strong  self-esteem,  has  its  seat  in  the  gray  substance 
of  the  cerebral  cortex.  It  is  therefore  properly  called 
the  cortical  ego.  Its  chief  importance  consists  in  its 
regulation  of  the  motor  impulses  issuing  from  the  sen- 
sory spheres  of  the  brain.  These  impulses  come  ulti- 
mately from  sense-impressions  which  lead  to  ideas.  It 
is,  however,  by  no  means  demonstrated  that  the  sepa- 
rate departments  of  sense  necessarily  produce,  taken 
together,  a  unitary  ego.  Eather  does  the  changeable- 
ness  of  character  in  most  men,  as  compared  with  the 
very  great  rarity  of  persons  so  headstrong  as  to  be 
immovable  in  all  circumstances,  argue  a  changeable- 
ness  in  the  highest,  central,  regulative,  self-conscious, 
mental  activity.  This  can  not,  of  course,  be  of  the 
least  detriment  to  the  importance  of  the  moral  per- 
sonality, of  responsibility  and  self-control ;  for  each 
human  being,  each  child,  and  each  mother,  has  never 
more  than  one  conscience,  and  although  the  self -con- 
sciousness, or  I-consciousness  of  the  tactual  sphere,  is 


156    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

doubtless  not  necessarily  merged  into  a  common  ego 
with  that  of  the  visual  and  that  of  the  auditory  sphere 
— and  as  well  that  of  the  olfactory,  and  finally  that  of 
the  gustatory  sphere — still  the  experiences  of  one  de- 
partment may  easily  keep  pace  with  the  experiences 
of  another,  and  these  must  in  a  clear  intellect  recipro- 
cally correct  and  supplement  one  another. 


CHAPTEE  X. 

THE   CONDITIONS   OF  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT. 

THE  foregoing  exposition  of  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant epochs  in  the  mental  development  of  the 
child  is  much  too  brief  in  proportion  to  the  difficulty 
and  the  magnitude  of  the  problem  discussed ;  but  it 
was  not  intended  by  any  means  to  be  an  exhaustive 
treatment  of  the  subject,  but  rather  to  stimulate  in- 
dividual observation  and  reflection  on  the  part  of 
others.  And  it  serves  to  point  out  the  ways  and  the 
aims  that  are  most  important. 

The  fundamental  condition  of  all  mentality  is  ac- 
tivity of  the  senses.  Accordingly  I  began  with  the 
gradual  awakening  of  sense-activity  in  the  newborn 
human  being,  who  comes  into  the  world  deaf  and 
mentally  blind,  mentally  without  feeling,  in  general 
without  mind,  but  rich,  very  rich  in  intellectual  and 
moral  germs,  tendencies,  aptitudes,  which  he  has  in- 
herited in  lavish  abundance  from  his  ancestors.  Next 
were  considered  the  sensations,  which  are  gradually 
separated  from  one  another,  and  the  special  feelings 


158    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

that  are  differentiated  out  of  general  bodily  feeling. 
These  it  is  which,  on  account  of  the  pleasure  and  the 
discomfort  connected  with  them,  chiefly  determine  the 
first  behavior  of  the  infant,  and,  being  dependent  in 
the  first  instance  upon  the  excitability  and  impression- 
ability of  the  nervous  system,  influence  the  develop- 
ment of  one  or  another  temperament. 

In  regard  to  the  first  activity  of  the  intellect,  I 
stated  that  it  consists  in  the  co-ordination  of  all  the 
possible  sensations  of  the  five  senses  (but  not  of  the 
feelings  that  affect  only  the  organs  themselves)  in 
time  and  space.  A  sensation  of  light  or  of  sound, 
of  touch  or  of  temperature,  once  cognized  as  coming 
between  two  others  in  point  of  time,  or  as  existing 
in  a  certain  locality,  or  as  situated  in  a  certain  direc- 
tion, is  raised  to  a  perception.  But  not  until,  with 
further  development  of  the  understanding,  a  cause 
is  found  for  that  which  is  perceived,  is  generated 
the  last  and  highest  product  of  the  understanding 
in  the  stricter  sense,  the  idea.  This,  on  its  part, 
through  its  limitation  to  the  concrete  becomes  a 
sense-percept,  and  through  abstraction  of  qualities 
common  to  many  ideas  becomes  a  concept,  i.  e.,  a  more 
general  idea.  The  combination  and  separation  of 
ideas  constitutes  the  essence  of  thought.  Every  child 
learns  of  himself  to  think,  since  every  child  brings 
with  him  into  the  world,  as  every  living  thing  does, 
an  ability  to  discriminate.  Along  with  the  capacity 


CONDITIONS  OF  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT.    159 

for  discriminating  is  given  that  of  comparing;  and 
here  is  manifested  the  remarkable  preference  for  unit- 
ing the  agreements  of  unlike  things  rather  than  sepa- 
rating the  differences  of  similar  things,  in  the  first 
period  of  development. 

It  is  in  a  quite  different  direction  that  the  older 
child,  or  rather  his  growing  brain,  enlarges  his  clear 
ideas,  ordering  his  original,  aimless,  often  ill-adapted, 
inborn,  impulsive  movements  to  accord  with  the  mo- 
tor ideas  acquired  through  the  perception  of  the  more 
rational  movements  of  other  persons.  The  reflex  and 
instinctive,  as  well  as  the  original,  inborn,  hereditary, 
impulsive  movements,  are  by  degrees  repressed,  and 
in  part  controlled,  as  compared  with  the  imitated 
muscular  movements,  particularly  those  of  the  tongue, 
the  imitations  of  sounds.  By  means  of  continual  re- 
ciprocal action  of  the  motor  impulses  that  give  the 
child  pleasurable  feelings  and  abolish  unpleasant  feel- 
ings the  will  emerges  in  its  purity ;  and  the  riddle, 
how  the  perfectly  will-less  newborn  creature  becomes 
in  his  second  half  year  a  being  that  evidently  moves 
voluntarily,  appears  somewhat  less  dark  when  we  con- 
sider that,  unless  clear  ideas  of  the  action  to  be  per- 
formed precede  the  action,  no  willing  is  at  all  possible. 
The  whole  development  and  perfecting  of  the  child's 
will  is  manifested  most  plainly  in  the  learning  of 
speech.  Here  the  error  of  the  old  theory,  that  the 
intellect  has  its  origin  in  language,  is  demonstrated 


160    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

beyond  denial.  Just  the  reverse  of  that  is  true.  Only 
he  who  has  already  much  intellect,  more  than  any 
brute  has,  can  learn  to  speak;  for  articulate  speech 
requires  two  things:  above  all,  hearing  and  under- 
standing of  what  is  spoken  (or,  in  the  case  of  one  born 
deaf,  the  perceiving  of  what  is  spoken  through  the 
sense  of  sight  or  of  touch) ;  next,  the  expression  of 
one's  own  ideas  by  means  of  quite  definite  co-ordinated 
muscular  movements,  together  with  the  employment 
of  breathing,  and  in  the  great  majority  of  nations,  of 
exhalation  exclusively. 

Taken  altogether,  it  has  been  found  that  speech  is 
a  higher  development  of  pantomime.  By  means  of  a 
great  number  of  gestures  and  an  extremely  subtly  de- 
veloped play  of  feature,  uninstructed  deaf  mutes  un- 
derstand each  other  at  this  day,  just  as  in  primeval 
times,  without  doubt,  did  primeval  men  who  were 
ignorant  of  speech.  And  what  we  know  in  general 
of  the  most  ancient  languages  shows  so  great  an  agree- 
ment in  regard  to  the  most  important  characteristics 
of  the  language  of  children  at  the  present  time,  that 
we  may  say  the  human  race  as  a  whole  has  behind  it 
a  course  of  development  in  this  matter  similar  to  that 
which  every  normal  child  goes  through  in  learning  to 
speak.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  formation  of 
complex  ideas,  of  higher  concepts,  therefore,  which  is 
favored  in  such  an  extraordinary  degree  by  the  ac- 
quirement of  speech  in  the  case  of  the  child,  was  ad- 


CONDITIONS  OF  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT.    161 

vanced  and  completed  in  like  manner  in  the  case  of 
the  primitive  man,  and  continues  to  be  thus  advanced 
and  completed  in  the  savage  of  the  present  day.  It  is 
not  the  knowledge  of  words  that  begets  intellect  and 
facilitates  thinking ;  it  is  abundance  of  ideas,  and 
hence  of  thoughts,  which  grow  out  of  the  combination 
and  separation  of  the  ideas  generated  by  sensations 
and  perceptions.  These  ideas,  however,  must  first  be 
sharply  separated  from  one  another  before  they  be- 
come available  for  abstractions  of  a  higher  sort  and 
for  new  combinations ;  and  the  complete,  sharp  sepa- 
ration is  made  possible  only  by  means  of  exact  desig- 
nation, and  thus  by  knowledge  of  words,  consequently 
by  language. 

It  would,  however  (let  me  emphasize  this  point), 
be  quite  preposterous  to  suppose  that  the  childish  in- 
tellect may  be  screwed  up  beyond  its  ordinary  tension 
by  pressing  words  into  it  as  early  and  as  long  as  pos- 
sible, and  that,  too,  in  various  languages;  for  it  is 
only  when  words  designate  things  well  understood 
that  they  can  have  the  value  they  have  been  shown  to 
have  for  the  development  of  the  intellect.  But  for 
the  brain  of  the  child,  which  is  at  the  beginning  only 
slightly  developed,  nothing  is  perfectly  intelligible 
except  that  which  is  easily  perceived,  sensuous,  tangi- 
ble, capable  of  being  grasped — in  general,  that  is  di- 
rectly apprehensible  by  the  senses — not  the  abstract, 
which  in  every  case  can  only  have  its  origin  in  some- 


162    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

thing  perceived  by  the  senses.  For  at  the  beginning 
precisely  those  portions  of  the  brain  of  which  I  spoke 
— the  visual  sphere,  the  auditory  sphere,  the  tactual, 
the  gustatory,  the  olfactory  spheres,  and  the  areas  of 
the  cerebral  cortex  associated  with  the  voluntary 
movements — are  either  not  at  all  or  only  very  little 
developed;  and  yet  the  brain  weighs  (according  to 
Vierordt),  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  life,  two  and 
a  half  times  as  much  as  at  birth,  and  gains  from  that 
time  on  through  all  the  rest  of  life  only  about  one 
third  more. 

Through  the  light  thrown  by  experimental  physi- 
ology, and  by  pathological  anatomy  and  physiology  of 
the  human  brain,  upon  the  connection  of  feeling,  will- 
ing, and  thinking,  and  even  certain  peculiarities  of 
character,  with  the  constitution  of  the  superficies  of 
the  cerebrum  (in  dogs),  it  has  become  possible  to  gain 
an  insight  into  the  mechanism  of  the  first  learning. 

Two  fundamental  rules  are  here  to  be  kept  in 
mind  by  every  mother,  by  every  educator  of  little 
children,  continually;  first,  to  spare  the  organs  of 
sense  and  the  nervous  system;  second,  to  exercise 
them. 

In  the  matter  of  promoting  or  restricting  the  ca- 
pacity— that  unfolds  itself  sooner  or  later,  always 
according  to  natural  endowment — of  forming  higher 
concepts,  it  is  in  any  case  better  to  talk  sensibly  with 
the  child  who  is  learning  to  talk  than  to  attempt  to 


CONDITIONS  OF  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT.    163 

put  one's  self  artificially  into  his  intellectual  condition 
by  using  an  artificial,  childish  language ;  for  this  kind 
of  language  will  have  to  be  unlearned  later.  And  if, 
for  example,  the  parents,  in  speaking  with  the  child, 
do  not  use  the  pronoun  "  I,"  but  call  themselves 
"  papa  "  and  "  mamma,"  and  address  the  child  not  in 
the  second  person  but  by  using  his  name  in  the  third 
person  singular,  then  they  make  much  harder  for  him 
the  correct  use  of  the  personal  pronouns,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  important  distinction  between  mine 
and  thine.  The  point  is,  not  at  what  time  does  the 
so-much  discussed  abstract  concept  of  the  "I,"  the 
self-consciousness,  the  being-myself,  definitely  appear, 
but  at  what  time  does  the  correct  naming  of  it  begin. 

The  gradual  development  of  the  "I "-feeling  in 
the  first  and  second  years  of  life  has  been  by  me 
ascribed  to  gradual  distinction  of  the  parts  of  one's 
own  body  from  other  bodies.  I  called  attention  to 
the  fact,  that  although  all  children  without  exception 
are  in  the  first  period  of  life  egoists — they  have  sympa- 
thy, to  be  sure,  and  they  share  in  the  joy  of  others, 
but  are  chiefly  set  upon  the  satisfaction  of  their  own 
hunger  and  thirst,  upon  securing  agreeable  conditions 
for  themselves — yet  they  have  no  unitary  conscious-  \/ 
ness  of  their  self ;  the  fact  is,  rather,  that  the  separate 
sensory  centers  and  motor  centers  are  still  in  a  strik- 
ing manner  independently  active. 

For  the  right  fusion  of  the  diiferent  elements  of 


164:    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

the  manifold  "  I  "  of  the  child — of  the  cervical  con- 
sciousness that  exists  at  the  very  beginning  preceding 
respiration,  for  example,  and  of  the  spinal-marrow 
consciousness,  with  the  later  appearing  "  I "  that 
feels,  sees,  hears — and  for  the  formation  of  an  indi- 
viduality with  firm  character  and  sensitive  conscience, 
heredity  is  often  of  still  greater  importance  than  edu- 
cation. I  desire  to  say  this,  at  the  close  of  these  con- 
siderations, with  special  emphasis.  And  yet  I  can 
not  agree  with  the  great  Darwin  in  the  opinion  that 
the  influence  of  education,  as  compared  with  that  of 
heredity,  is  infinitesimal.  For  precisely  the  most  im- 
portant function  of  the  brain,  the  regulation  of  all 
the  bodily  processes  connected  with  it  through  the 
nervous  system,  directly  or  indirectly,  and  of  all  ac- 
tions, as  well  as  the  right  division  of  time,  can  not  be 
attained,  however  superior  may  be  the  hereditary  en- 
dowments, without  the  most  careful  selection  of  that 
which  is  presented  to  the  sensuous  perception  in  the 
season  of  youth.  It  has  long  been  known  that  the 
development  of  this  regulator  depends  directly  upon 
the  impressions  received  in  youth,  and  thus  upon  edu- 
cation ;  and  a  particularly  instructive  example  of  this 
is  furnished  in  the  examination  of  the  brain  of  the 
blind,  deaf,  and  dumb  Laura  Bridgman,  who  was  born 
in  1829  and  died  in  1889.  At  two  years  of  age  she 
lost  her  left  eye  wholly,  but  retained  a  slight  sensation 
for  large,  bright  objects  with  the  right  eye  up  to  her 


CONDITIONS  OF  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT.    165 

eighth  year,  at  which  time  the  right  eye  also  became 
entirely  blind.  The  child  of  two  years  had  lost  her 
speech  completely  along  with  her  hearing ;  her  smell 
and  taste  were  partly  gone.  In  this  pitiable  condition 
the  child  was  reared  with  the  help  of  signs  at  first, 
arbitrary  signs  of  touch.  She  learned,  among  other 
things,  to  sew  and  knit.  But  in  the  year  1837  she 
was  taken  to  an  institute  for  the  blind  in  Boston. 
Here  the  girl  was  taught  and  trained  by  the  superin- 
tendent, Dr.  S.  Gr.  Howe,  with  unspeakable  patience. 
The  name  of  an  object,  printed  in  raised  letters,  was 
pasted  upon  the  object,  and  Laura  was  made  to  touch 
the  word,  and  then  the  object.  Next  she  combined 
the  two  tactile  impressions.  Then  she  learned  to 
form  the  name  of  the  object  out  of  the  separate  let- 
ters, and  finally,  after  a  long  time,  she  learned  the  in- 
dividual letters.  When  she  had  made  the  important 
discovery  that  "the  sign  for  an  object  could  be  con- 
structed from  the  individual  letters,  the  meaning  of 
what  she  was  doing  dawned  upon  her.  From  this 
time  on  she  had  to  be  held  back  in  learning,  lest  her 
health  should  be  endangered."  Although  in  her 
eighth  year  the  sense  of  smell  was  still  entirely  want- 
ing, yet  she  could  at  a  later  period  tell  the  direction 
of  the  kitchen  by  the  smell ;  at  this  time  she  distin- 
guished sour  better  than  sweet  or  bitter.  "  Her  sense 
of  touch  and  contact  was  very  acute  even  for  a  blind 

person,  and  she  was  very  sensitive  to  jar.     As  far  as 
13 


166    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

could  be  discovered,  she  did  not  dream  in  visual  or 
auditory  ideas.  She  had  more  than  fifty  sounds  by 
which  she  could  designate  acquaintances.  She  was, 
moreover,  remarkable  for  her  sense  of  order,  neatness, 
and  propriety."  Through  her  sense  of  jar  she  could 
recognize  the  footsteps,  and  sometimes  even  the  voices, 
of  her  acquaintances,  her  statement  being  that  she 
"  heard  through  her  feet."  By  the  sense  of  smell  she 
could,  in  1878,  distinguish  the  odors  of  some  more 
fragrant  flowers,  but  cologne- water,  ammonia,  and 
onions  only  when  quite  strong.  Bitter  and  acid  she 
tasted  less  well  at  this  time  than  sweet  and  salt.  Her 
sense  of  touch  was  from  twice  to  three  times  as  acute 
as  that  of  a  seeing  person.  I  have  myself  seen  the 
facsimile  of  a  letter  quite  neatly  written  by  herself 
without  assistance.  She  composed  little  poems.  "  A 
cane  with  knots  on  it  was  less  pleasing  to  her  than  a 
smooth  one,  and  an  irregular  knobbed  stick  than  one 
with  the  prominences  at  regular  intervals." 

In  the  case  of  this  person,  who  was  deprived,  ex- 
cept during  her  earliest  childhood,  completely  of  sight 
and  hearing,  partly  of  smell  and  taste,  and  was  thus 
almost  a  being  with  a  single  sense,  yet  very  sensitive, 
and  who,  in  spite  of  all,  owing  to  exceedingly  careful 
regimen,  reached  the  age  of  sixty,  the  examination 
of  the  brain  showed  that  those  portions  which  from 
youth  up  could  not  be  brought  into  activity  in  the 
ordinary  way  through  external  impressions — viz.,  all 


CONDITIONS  OF  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT.    167 

the  cerebral  nerves — were  small ;  the  gustatory  nerve, 
the  auditory  nerve,  and  a  nerve  that  moves  the  eye- 
ball were  stunted,  particularly  the  tract  of  the  optic 
nerves.  The  hemispheres  appeared  somewhat  flat- 
tened behind,  and  the  occipital  lobe,  in  fact,  smaller 
on  the  right  than  on  the  left,  and  the  right  cuneus 
much  less  developed  than  the  left.  This  difference  in 
the  region  belonging  to  the  visual  spheres  is  intelligi- 
ble when  we  consider  that  Miss  Bridgman,  from  her 
second  year,  was  completely  blind  with  her  left  eye, 
whereas  with  the  right  she  "  retained  some  sensation 
of  light  until  her  eighth  year — enough,  at  any  rate,  to 
allow  the  development  of  the  centers  of  the  left  side 
to  go  on."  Further,  the  insula  was  found  abnormally 
exposed  in  a  manner  corresponding  essentially  to  the 
variations  from  the  norm  that  are  characteristic  for 
deaf  mutes  [American  Journal  of  Psychology,  vol. 
iii,  No.  3,  On  the  Brain  of  Laura  Bridgman,  Don- 
aldson]. All  these,  and  still  other  peculiarities  of  the 
brain  in  this  rare  case,  agree  with  the  views  presented 
here  before  the  peculiarities  were  known>  and  with 
the  results  of  experiments  recently  made  by  various 
observers  upon  animals.  For  instance,  if  an  eye  is 
removed  from  a  newborn  rabbit,  the  corresponding 
portions  of  the  brain  are  found  to  be  stunted  in  the 
adult  animal. 

Strong,  then,  as  heredity  is,  powerful  as  its  influ- 
ence appears  in  the  shaping  of  every  organized  being 


168    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

at  every  step,  still  the  influence  of  external  circum- 
stances may  surpass  it  in  a  psyche-genetic  respect ;  and 
it  is  just  here  that  is  situated  the  center  of  gravity  of 
a  natural,  a  physiological  pedagogy.  Such  a  peda- 
gogy must  work,  first  of  all,  among  the  countless  he- 
reditary tendencies  by  means  of  consistent,  suitable 
selection  of  auditory  and  visual  impressions ;  then  by 
all  ways  of  regulating  the  movements,  and  later  the 
actions,  must  work  in  the  direction  of  developing  the 
useful  tendencies,  those  worthy  of  development,  re- 
ceived from  innumerable  ancestors,  as  fully  and  har- 
moniously as  possible ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  those 
tendencies  that  are  harmful,  often  directly  destructive 
to  the  child  himself  and  to  the  society  in  which  he 
grows  up,  must  from  the  beginning  be  hindered  in 
their  development,  stifled,  as  it  were,  in  the  germ.  This 
is  the  meaning  of  the  significant  expression,  "  to  bend 
the  will  of  the  child,"  a  thing  that  is  best  done  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  above-mentioned  principle  of  the 
diversion  of  the  attention. 

But  if  in  desperate  cases,  where  the  education  of 
the  child  seems  to  present  insurmountable  difficulties, 
we  choose  to  send  him  off  at  once  to  a  reform  school, 
folding  our  hands  in  our  lap  and  solacing  ourselves 
with  the  weak  consolation  that  one  can  make  no  head- 
way "against  heredity,"  then  we  forego  one  of  the 
very  greatest  advantages  ascertained  by  experience. 
Precisely  in  the  case  of  pronounced  hereditary  tend- 


CONDITIONS  OF  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT.    169 

encies  has  education  one  of  the  most  rewarding  prob- 
lems to  solve  through  favoring  the  good  and  oppos- 
ing the  bad.  The  child  of  a  drunkard  or  of  an 
insane  person  may  have  most  excellent  qualities  of 
character,  may  be  talented  in  a  very  high  degree ;  and 
inasmuch  as  the  time  will  never  come  when  such 
children  will  not  be  born,  since  no  sharp  boundary 
line  between  insane  and  sane  can  be  drawn,  and 
the  marriage  of  persons  of  abnormal  intellect  can 
not  lawfully  be  prevented,  and  cerebral  disorder,  like 
dipsomania,  frequently  does  not  manifest  itself  until 
after  marriage,  we  must  reckon  -with  the  existing 
facts.  And  here  it  is  that  among  sound  children  of 
sound  parents,  also,  in  their  education  in  the  family, 
far  too  much  that  is  unphysiological  is  done,  and  far 
too  little  that  is  physiologically  necessary  is  done,  in 
order  to  preserve  the  intellectual  health  through  a 
correct  dietetic  of  the  brain.  If  this  knowledge  once 
makes  its  way  into  wider  circles,  then  young  and  in- 
experienced mothers  will  of  their  own  accord  look 
about  for  means  of  instructing  themselves  as  to  what 
is  needed  for  the  education  of  their  little  darlings  dur- 
ing the  first  years  of  life,  and  will  not  intrust  them  so 
much  as  has  been  the  case  to  uneducated  hired  serv- 
ants. 

I  am  so  often  asked  how,  then,  one  must  go  to 
work  in  order  to  prepare  himself  properly  for  the  ob- 
servation and  the  regulation  of  the  intellectual  devel- 


170    DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIND  IN  THE  CHILD. 

opment  of  the  little  child,  that  I  can  not  refrain  from 
referring  once  more  to  the  book  mentioned  at  the  be- 
ginning— The  Mind  of  the  Child  [vols.  vii  and  ix 
of  The  International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton 
&  Co.,  New  York].  But  a  full  exposition  of  its  con- 
tents would  not  be  in  place  here.  Let  me  rather  close 
with  the  wish  that  all  parents  who  read  that  book 
may  be  moved  by  it  to  take  to  heart  more  than  they 
have  done  not  merely  what  a  blessing  and  what  a 
transcendent  source  of  happiness  has  come  to  them, 
but  also  how  great  is  their  responsibility. 


SYLLABUS  OF   PREYER'S 
MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  THE  CHILD. 


Pages  i  to  15. 

THE    SENSES. 

1.  EACH  sense  essential  in  its  own  field  of  knowledge. 

2.  A  sense  not  self-active  in  relation  to  knowledge. 

3.  The  order  of  awakening  of  the  several  senses. 

4.  Differences  between   the  infant's  brain  and  that  of 

the  adult. 

5.  Need  of  training  the  senses  through  acts  of  discrimi- 

nation. 

Pages  1 6  to  29. 

FEELINGS,    EMOTIONS,    TEMPERAMENTS. 

1.  Bodily  feelings  not  distinguished  in  early  infancy. 

2.  Sense-perceptions  giving  rise  to  feelings. 

3.  The  emotions  and  their  development. 

4.  Educational  influences  of  fear. 

5.  Early  manifestation  of  general  temperament. 

6.  Classification  of  temperaments. 

7.  Necessary  differences  in  the  treatment  of  children 

having  different  temperaments. 

Pages  30  to  47. 

PERCEPTIONS   AND    IDEAS. 

1.  The  first  intellectual  activity. 

2.  Close  relation  of  the  two  senses  of  sight  and  touch 

in  the  acquirement  of  early  knowledge. 


I72  SYLLABUS   OF   PREYER'S 

3.  Progress  of  mental  action  from  the  field  of  mere  sen- 
sation to  that  of  perception. 

4.  Further  progress  from  the  perception  to  the  idea  and 
to  thought. 

5.  Educational  importance  of  the  principle  of  "Divert- 
ing the  Attention." 

6.  The   influence    of   play  upon   intellectual    develop- 

ment. 

7.  Its  influence  upon  character. 

8.  Play  to  be  permitted  without  undue  restrictions. 

Pages  48  to  65. 

THE   WILL. 

1.  The  human  will  superior  to  material  forces. 

2.  The   determinant    force   in   man's  career  and  des- 

tiny. 

3.  Will-action  first  evidenced  by  imitative  movements. 

4.  Will  dependent  upon  deliberative  ideas  arising  from 

perceptions  and  sensations. 

5.  Need  of  providing  for  suitable  external  impressions 

and  of  guarding  against  pernicious  influences. 

6.  Undue  requirement  or  prohibition  alike  harmful  to 

the  development  of  will. 

7.  Care  of  general  health  and  of  brain  and  nerve  exer- 

cise conducive  to  normal  will-power. 

8.  Self-instruction  precedes  development  under  the  di- 

rection of  other  persons. 

9.  Evidences  that  sense-impressions  rather  than  origi- 

nal desires  give  rise  to  will-action. 

10.  Inhibition  as  the  higher  form  of  will-activity. 

11.  Harm  of  requiring  too  frequent  or  too  severe  exer- 

cise of  inhibition. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT   IN   THE   CHILD.        1/3 

Pages  66  to  83. 

THE   FIRST   LEARNING. 

1.  The  child's  earliest  acquirement  of  knowledge  arises 

from    sense-perception,    not    from    a     teacher    or 
through  language. 

2.  In  direct  contact  with  things,  and  especially  in 

reason  and  character  are  cultivated. 

3.  Thinking  can  not  be  taught  through  language,  but 

must  arise  from  direct  experience. 

4.  Wrong  results  of  one-sided  instruction  either  in  lan- 

guage or  in  observation. 

5.  Physiological  view  of  the  relation  of  special  activities 

to  certain  definite  portions  of  the  brain. 

6.  Importance  of  such  education  as  shall  call  into  action 

all  the  powers  of  the  mind. 

7.  The  dangers  of  excessive  book-work  in  the  education 

of  children. 

8.  Discrimination  and  comparison  are  the  elements  of 

an  act  of  thinking. 

Pages  84  to  102. 

INTELLECT   AND    LANGUAGE. 

1.  Thought  and  the  process  of  reasoning  may  be  active 

without  the  use  of  language. 

2.  Language  aids  the  processes  of  mental  development 

through  all  steps  and  is  essential  to  full  mental  ac- 
tivity. 

3.  The  learning  of  language  is  dependent   upon   right 

brain  condition  and  suitable  influence  of  associates. 

4.  The  child's  observation  of  looks  and  gestures  pre- 

pares him  for  the  reception  of  words  as  expressive 
of  ideas. 


1/4  SYLLABUS   OF   PREYER'S 

Pages  103  to  122. 

SPEECH. 

1.  The  importance  of  trustworthy  records  of  the  early 

speech  of  children. 

2.  Crying  comes  to  possess  some  characteristic  of  lan- 

guage   in    that   it   expresses   discriminated   impres- 
sions. 

3.  Before  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  life  articulate  words 

are  commonly  used  intelligently. 

4.  The  development  of  the  speech  center  in  the  brain 

during  the  process  of  learning  to  use  language. 

5.  Successive  steps  in  the  physical  and  mental  processes 

in  hearing  and  reproducing  a  given  sound. 

6.  The  association  of  special  words  with  certain  expe- 

riences or  observations,  is  the  further  essential  to 
language  acquirement. 

Pages  123  to  140. 

FORMATION    OF    HIGHER    IDEAS. 

1.  Words  help  the  child  first  to  more  definite  ideas,  and 

afterward  to  connected  thought. 

2.  Memory  along  the  line  of  more  than  one  sense  may 

be  associated  with  the  idea  expressed  by  a  word. 

3.  Words,  while  few,  are  used  as  too  comprehensive  and 

vague,  because  the  ideas  are  not  yet  sharply  defined 
and  distinguished. 

4.  Teaching  by  words  is  begun  too  early  if  the  abstract 

ideas  can  not  be  developed  from  the  child's  stock 
of  experiences. 

5.  Formation  of  clear  concepts  and  strong  association 

of  ideas  require  many  sense-impressions. 

6.  Children  are  alike  in  their  earliest  thought-processes. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN   THE   CHILD.        175 
Pages  141  to  156. 

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. 

1.  Consciousness  of  self  is  not  present  to  the  new-born 

child. 

2.  The   child's  knowledge  of    himself  comes  severally 

along  the  line  of  the  different  senses. 

3.  Sight  and  touch  co-operate  in  the  gaining  of  a  knowl- 

edge of  the  body  and  its  belongings. 

4.  The  sense  of  hearing  gives  later  conceptions  of  self 

as  distinguished  from  external  objects. 

5.  The  senses  of  smell  and  taste  can  add  comparatively 

little  to  the  conception  of  self. 

6.  Full  self-consciousness  requires  the  presence  and  ac- 

tivity of  a  centralized  nervous  system. 

7.  The  sensory  consciousness  of  self  can  not  reveal  the 

unit  ego,  which  requires  pure  abstraction. 

8.  The  power  of  self  to  regulate  its  own  activity  is  the 

highest  province  of  self-consciousness. 

9.  Education  involves  the  development  of   conscience 

out  of  the  knowledge  of  self  and  the  idea  of  re- 
sponsibility for  self-activity. 

Pages  157  to  170. 

MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT. 

1.  Sense-activity  is  the  essential  condition  to  all  further 

mental  action. 

2.  The  first  acts  of  intellect  consist  in  relating  sensa- 

tions with  reference  to  time  or  space. 

3.  The  full  idea  as  belonging  to  the  understanding  in- 

volves the  further  relation  of  cause. 

4.  Thought  consists  in  the  combination  of  ideas  or  their 

separation. 


1/6        MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   IN   THE   CHILD. 

5.  The  will   is  developed   from   the   ideas  of   possible 

movement  and  of  repression  of  activities. 

6.  The  perfecting  of  intellect  and  of  will  is  manifested 

in  the  learning  of  speech. 

7.  Only  words  that  express  things  that  are  well  under- 

stood can  have  real  value  in  mental  development. 

8.  Right  education   requires   that  the   senses   and   the 

nervous  system  be  exercised  without  being  over- 
taxed. 

9.  The  formation  of  individuality  and  character  depend 

upon  both  heredity  and  education. 


THE   END. 


D.  APPLETON   AND  COMPANY'S  PUBLICATIONS. 
JAMES   SULLY'S   WORKS. 

STUDIES  OF  CHILDHOOD.   8vo.   cioth,  $2.50. 

^"""^  An  ideal  popular  scientific  book.  These  studies  proceed  on  sound  scientific 
lines  in  accounting  for  the  mental  manifestations  of  children,  yet  they  require  the  reader 
to  follow  no  laborious  train  of  reasoning ;  and  the  reader  who  is  in  search  of  enter- 
tainment merely  will  find  it  in  the  quaint  sayings  and  doings  with  which  the  volume 
abounds. 

/CHILDREN'S    WAYS.     Being  Selections  from  the 

V-'  Author's  "  Studies  of  Childhood,"  and  some  additional  matter. 
I2mo.  Cloth,  $1.50. 

This  work  is  mainly  a  condensation  of  the  author's  previous  book,  "Studies  of 
Childhood,"  but  considerable  new  matter  is  added.  The  material  that  Mr.  Sully  sup- 
plies is  the  most  valuable  of  recent  contributions  on  the  psychological  phases  of  child 
study. 

'TTEACHER'S  HAND-BOOK  OF PSYCHOLOG Y. 

•*•  On  the  Basis  of  "  Outlines  of  Psychology."  Abridged  by  the 
Author  for  the  use  of  Teachers,  Schools,  Reading  Circles,  and 
Students  generally.  Fourth  edition,  rewritten  and  enlarged. 
I2mo.  Cloth,  $1.50. 

The  present  edition  has  been  carefully  revised  throughout,  largely  rewritten,  and 
enlarged  by  about  fifty  pages.  While  seeking  to  preserve  the  original  character  of  the 
book  as  an  introduction^  I  have  felt  it  necessary,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  our  best  train- 
ing colleges  for  secondary  teachers  are  now  making  a  serious  study  of  psychology, 
to  amplify  somewhat  and  bring  up  to  date  the  exposition  of  scientific  principles.  I  have 
also  touched  upon  those  recent  developments  of  experimental  psychology  which  have 
concerned  themselves  with  the  measurement  of  the  simpler  mental  processes,  and  which 
promise  to  have  important  educational  results  by  supplying  accurate  tests  of  children's 
abilities." — From  the  A  uthors  Preface. 


OF    PSYCHOLOGY,   -with   Special 

Reference  to  the  Theory  of  Education.     A  Text-Book  for  Col- 
leges.    Crown  8vo.     Cloth,  $3.00. 

LLUSIONS.     A  Psychological    Study.     I2mo,  372 
pages.     Cloth,  $1.50. 

DESSIMISM.     A  History  and  a  Criticism.     Second 
*•         edition.     8vo,  470  pages  and  Index.     Cloth,  $4.00. 


T 


HE  HUMAN  MIND.     A  Text-Book  of  Psychol- 
ogy.    Two  volumes.     8vo.     Cloth,  $5.00. 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

NEW  VOLUMES  IN  THE  INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATION  SERIES. 

JDIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  EDUCATION.     By  WILL 

•*—*    S.  MONROE,  A.  B.,  Department  of  Pedagogy  and  Psychology^ 
State  Normal  School,  Westfield,  Mass.     $2.00. 

This  book  will  prove  of  great  use  to  normal  schools,  training  schools  for  teachers, 
arid  to  educational  lecturers  and  all  special  students  seeking  to  acquaint  themselves 
with  the  literature  of  any  particular  department.  It  will  be  of  especial  value  to  librari- 
ans in  the  way  of  assisting  them  to  answer  two  questions  :  (a)  What  books  has  this 
library  on  any  special  educational  theme  ?  (6)  What  books  ought  it  to  obtain  to  com, 
plete  its  collection  in  that  theme  ? 


T^ROEBELS  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS  FOR  ALL 
-*•         TEA  CHERS.     By  JAMES  L.  HUGHES,  Inspector  of  Schools, 
Toronto.     $1.50. 

The  aim  of  this  book  is  to  give  a  simple  exposition  of  the  most  important  principles 
of  Froebel's  educational  philosophy,  and  to  make  suggestions  regarding  the  applies*, 
tion  of  these  principles  to  the  work  of  the  schoolroom  in  teaching  and  training.  It  will 
answer  the  question  often  propounded,  How  far  beyond  the  kindergarten  can  Froebel's 
principles  be  successfully  applied  ? 


CHOOL     MANAGEMENT    AND     SCHOOL 

ME  THODS.  By  Dr.  J.  BALDWIN,  Professor  of  Pedagogy  in 
the  University  of  Texas  ;  Author  of  "  Elementary  Psychology 
and  Education  "  and  "  Psychology  applied  to  the  Art  of  Teach-- 
ing."  $1.50. 

This  is  eminently  an  everyday  working  book  for  teachers;  practical,  suggestive, 
inspiring.  It  presents  clearly  the  best  things  achieved,  and  points  the  way  to  better 
things.  School  organization,  school  control,  and  school  methods  are  studies  anev/from 
the  standpoint  of  pupil  betterment.  The  teacher  is  led  to  create  the  ideal  school,  em- 
bodying all  that  is  best  in  school  work,  and  stimulated  to  endeavor  earnestly  to  realize 
the  ideal. 

PRINCIPLES  AND    PRACTICE   OF    TEACH- 
*        ING.     By  JAMES    JOHONNOT.      Revised   by  SARAH    EVANS 

JOHONNOT.      $I.5O. 

This  book  embodies  in  a  compact  form  the  results  of  the  wide  experience  and  care- 
ful reflection  of  an  enthusiastic  teacher  and  school  supervisor.  Mr.  Johonnot  as  an 
educational  reformer  helped  thousands  of  struggling  teachers  who  had  brought  over  the 
rural  school  methods  into  village  school  work.  He  made  life  worth  living  to  them. 
His  help,  through  the  pages  of  this  book,  will  aid  other  thousands  in  the.  same  struggle 
to  adopt  the  better  methods  that  are  possible  in  the  graded  school.  The  teacher  who 
aspires  to  better  his  instruction  will  read  this  book  with  profit. 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


nTHE  STORY  OF  WASHINGTON.      By  ELIZA- 

-»  BETH  EGGLESTON  SEELYE.  Edited  by  Dr.  Edward  Eggleston, 
With  over  100  Illustrations  by  Allegra  Eggleston.  A  new  vol- 
ume in  the  "  Delights  of  History  "  Series,  uniform  with  "  The 
Story  of  Columbus."  I2mo.  Cloth,  $1.75. 

"One  of  the  best  accounts  of  the  incidents  of  Washington's  life  for  young  people." 
*-*New  York  Observer. 

"The  Washington  described  is  not  that  of  the  demigod  or  hero  of  the  first  half  of 
this  century,  but  the  man  Washington,  with  his  defects  as  well  as  his  virtues,  his  unat- 
tractive traits  as  well  as  his  pleasing  ones.  .  .  .  There  is  greater  freedom  from  errors 
than  in  more  pretentious  lives." — Chicago  Tribune. 

"The  illustrations  are  numerous,  and  actually  illustrate,  including  portraits  and 
views,  with  an  occasional  map  and  minor  pictures  suggestive  of  the  habits  and  customs 
of  the  period.  It  is  altogether  an  attractive  and  useful  book,  and  one  that  should  find 
many  readers  among  American  boys  and  girls." — Philadelphia  Times. 

"  A  good  piece  of  literary  work  presented  in  an  attractive  shape." — New  York 
Tribune. 

"  Will  be  read  with  interest  by  young  and  old.  It  is  told  with  good  taste  and  ac- 
curacy, and  if  the  first  President  loses  some  of  his  mythical  goodness  in  this  story,  the 
real  greatness  of  his  natural  character  stands  out  distinctly,  and  his  example  will  be  all 
the  more  helpful  to  the  boys  and  girls  of  this  generation." — New  York  Churchman. 

"The  book  is  just  what  has  been  needed,  the  story  of  the  life  of  Washington,  as 
well  as  of  his  public  career,  written  in  a  manner  so  interesting  that  one  who  begins 
it  will  finish,  and  so  told  that  it  will  leave  not  the  memory  of  a  few  trivial  anecdotes  by 
which  to  measure  the  man,  but  a  just  and  complete  estimate  of  him.  The  illustrations 
are  so  excellent  as  to  double  the  value  of  the  book  as  it  would  be  without  them."— 
Chicago  Times, 

HE  STORY  OF  COLUM3US.  By  ELIZABETH 
EGGLESTON  SEELYE.  Edited  by  Dr.  Edward  Eggleston.  With 
100  Illustrations  by  Allegra  Eggleston.  "  Delights  of  History  " 
Series.  I2mo.  Cloth,  $1.75. 

"A  brief,  popular,  interesting,  and  yet  critical  volume,  just  such  as  we  should  wish 
to  place  in  the  hands  of  a  young  reader.  The  authors  of  this  volume  have  done  their 
best  to  keep  it  on  a  high  plane  of  accuracy  and  conscientious  work  without  losing  sight 
of  their  readers." — New  York  Independent. 

"  In  some  respects  altogether  the  best  book  that  the  Columbus  year  has  brought 
out." — Rochester  Post-Express. 

"A  simple  story  told  in  a  natural  fashion,  and  will  be  found  far  more  interesting' 
than  many  of  the  more  ambitious  works  on  a  similar  theme." — New  York  Journal  oj 
Commerce. 

"  This  is  no  ordinary  work.  It  is  pre-eminently  a  work  of  the  present  time  and  of 
the  future  as  well." — Boston  Traveller. 

"  Mrs.  Seelye's  book  is  pleasing  in  its  general  effect,  and  reveals  the  results  of 
painstaking  and  conscientious  study," — New  York  Tribune. 

"  A  very  just  account  is  given  of  Columbus,  his  failings  being  neither  concaaled  nor 
magnified,  but  his  real  greatness  being  made  plain  " — New  York  Exaaniner. 

"  The  illustrations  are  particularly  well  chosen  and  neatly  executed,  and.  they  add 
to  the  general  excellence  of  the  volume." — New  York  Times. 


New  York :  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  72  Fifth  Avenue. 


RECENT  VOLUMES  OF 
THE  INTERNATIONAL  SCIENTIFIC  SERIES. 

Evolution  by  Atrophy. 

By  JEAN  DEMOOR,  JEAN  MASSART,  and  EMILE  VANDERVELDE.  A 
new  volume  in  the  International  Scientific  Series. 

The  purpose  of  this  work  is  twofold.  The  authors  aim  to  show,  first,  that 
an  essential  element  of  the  process  of  evolution  as  it  goes  on  among  plants  and 
animals  is  the  degeneration,  decay,,  or  atrophy  of  organs  or  parts  of  organs,  at 
the  same  time  that  other  parts  or  organs  may  and  are  generally  being  carried 
to  a  higher  stage  of  development,  these  modifications  of  structure  being  at- 
tended with  corresponding  changes  of  function.  The  changes  that  thus  take 
place  in  the  organism,  be  they  upward  or  downward,  degenerative  or  progressive, 
are  a  part  of  the  process  of  adaptation  that  is  everywhere  forced  upon  the  living 
being  by  environing  conditions.  Secondly,  they  point  out  that  what  is  true  in 
these  respects  in  the  field  of  life  or  biology  is  also  true,  though  perhaps  to  a  less 
extent,  in  social  phenomena  or  sociology.  Societies,  like  individual  organisms, 
are  ever  changing,  ever  adapting  themselves  to  surrounding  conditions,  and 
undergoing  modification  through  influences  that  operate  both  from  within  and 
without.  Just  as  in  the  case  of  plants  and  animals,  the  resulting  social  evolu- 
tion is  attended  by  the  phenomena  of  degeneration  or  atrophy,  institutions  and 
customs  that  were  once  in  the  ascendant  declining  and  giving  way  to  be  re- 
placed by  more  highly  specialized  forms  of  activity. 

Memory  and  its  Cultivation. 

By  F.  W.  EDRIDGE- GREEN,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  C.  S.,  author  of 
"  Colour- Blindness  and  Colour- Perception,"  etc.  $1.50. 

The  Aurora  Borealis. 

By  ALFRED  ANGOT,  Honorary  Meteorologist  to  the  Central 
Meteorological  Office  of  France.  With  1 8  Illustrations.  $1.75. 

The  Evolution  of  the  Art  of  Music. 
By  C.  HUBERT  H.  PARRY,  D.  C.  L.,  M.  A.,  etc.      $1.75. 

What  is  Electricity  ? 

By  JOHN  TROWBRIDGE,  S.  D.,  Rumford  Professor  and  Lecturer 
on  the  Applications  of  Science  to  the  Useful  Arts,  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. Illustrated.  $1.50. 

D.   APPLETON  AND  COMPANY,  NEW   YORK. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  PINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON 'THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 

OVERDUE. 


1041 


LOAN  DEPT. 


UL 16 1986 


JUN  Z  4  !963 


t  /?    tQC 

RHCEr 
NOV7 


JUN     61986 


NOV7   -8AJ 


IDUC-PSYC 


LD  21-100m-7,'40(6936s)l 


B 


